• Second leg of final postponed amid pre-match chaos
• Coach pelted with missiles as players suffer effects of teargas
The second leg of the Copa Libertadores final between River Plate and Boca Juniors had to be postponed for 24 hours on Saturday as a result of an attack on the Boca team bus. River fans clashed with police outside the stadium as tear gas and rubber bullets were fired. But the violence is only part of the story.
There were desperate attempts to stage the game on its scheduled day, first with an hour’s delay, at 6pm local time, and then at 7.15, 7.30 and 7.45, before the abandonment was finally announced to deafening whistles from the 70,000 inside the ground at around 7.20. A large part of the fallout will concern who applied pressure to whom and what machinations occurred in the three and a quarter hours after the attack.
Written by Jonathan Wilson at El Monumental
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/nov/25/river-plate-boca-juniors-copa-libertadores-final-second-leg under the title “River fans attack on Boca bus halts Copa Libertadores final for 24 hours”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
