Nacional lost 2-0 against River Plate at the Más Monumental stadium in Buenos Aires for the second date of Group H of CONMEBOL Libertadores 2024.
River against Nacional, for the Libertadores. Photobaires
El Millonario marked his domination of the ball and the threads of the match from the first minute. It was difficult for the tricolor to stand firmly on the field, and the retreat of its lines became inevitable.
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River’s first goal seemed to take no time, and finally came at 15′, when “Diablito” Echeverri took a tremendous shot from outside the area and opened the scoring.
The impact of the 1-0 was felt in the Bag, which only in the second half of the first 45 minutes was able to loosen up more in attack and find some way towards Franco Armani’s goal. Although they had a very clear chance, where Christian Ebere finished alone in the area and his shot went wide, the predominance of offensive actions continued to belong to the local team. The defensive work in their area by those led by Álvaro Recoba was not bad, since although River dominated and reached the last zone, it was not able to generate clear chances for its forwards. The problem appeared a few meters ahead, since recovering and maintaining possession became very difficult.
Even so, Nacional had two very clear chances in the first 45 minutes, both wasted by Ebere, who also completed a half where he showed a lot of effort and gave problems to the Millonario fund.
The second half began with a similar tone, with River dominating the ball, and with Nacional arriving in isolation with the Nigerian attacker. The crossbar saved the tricolor in the 56th minute, but Martín Demichelis’ team did not finish closing its plays, leaving the Bag “alive.”
Faced with this scenario, the tricolor pushed and saw that if they managed to organize themselves on the offensive side, a tie was more than possible. As the minutes passed, Nacional began to get ahead on the field and had some streaks where it seemed like they could get closer to the goal. However, he continually failed in creation and River caused him many problems by playing on the counterattack, taking advantage of the spaces left in the back of the Uruguayan team. The locals created time and time again, but continually failed, leaving the scoreboard in suspense until the very end of the match.
Already in stoppage time, Facundo Colidio headed a cross almost over the goal line and sealed the final 2-0, a difference that was more in line with the process of the match.
Nacional suffered its first defeat in this group stage, but knows that it still has intact chances of qualifying for the next round in its group.
