In a frenetic match, Racing achieved its revenge. After the recent elimination in the quarterfinals of the Copa Argentina, La Academia had its rematch and defeated River 3-2 in the round of 16 of the Torneo Clausura.
Right at the start of the match, Gustavo Costas's team quickly took the lead thanks to Santiago Solari's header, who headed down a very good cross from Gabriel Rojas that left Franco Armani with no chance to react, making it an early 1-0.
The Avellaneda team would not lower its intensity and kept suffocating El Millonario, which could not get a foothold in the opening minutes and was limited to clearing the home team's attacks as best it could. Only in the 15th minute did the visitors have an isolated chance with a shot from Marcos Acuña from outside the box, but it posed no threat to Facundo Cambeses.
Later, in the 25th minute, River finally put together an attacking play that ended with three saves by the academic goalkeeper after consecutive dangerous shots from Sebastián Driussi and Nacho Fernández, and shortly after, a weak shot from Kevin Castaño.
Although the Núñez team managed to find some normalcy, Racing did not relent in its attacks. In that context, Agustín Almendra led a dangerous counterattack that Fernández himself had to stop with a foul, thus earning a yellow card. The resulting free kick from Rojas went close to Armani's crossbar.
Immediately after, Tomás Conechny could have increased the lead with a point-blank header, but it went just wide of La Banda's right post. Near the end of the first half, Almendra took a powerful free kick that the world champion goalkeeper managed to clear.
Already in the second half, after some approaches from Racing, Muñeco Gallardo made the first changes to his team: Juanfer Quintero for Maxi Salas, Giulano Galoppo for Kevin Castaño, and Ian Subiabre for Thiago Acosta.
