Boca’s Alternate Side Falls to Inter in Porto Alegre.

Inter fielded their very best available players for this match in front of 35,000 of their fans. Boca sent a side comprised of youngsters and alternates who had, thus far, had a fantastic showing in the last round. Inter were out to salvage a poor performance in the Brasileirao and Boca are trying to stay alive in both the Argentine Aperutra and the Sudamericana.

The offensive set that Inter fielded was made up of Argentine Andrés D’Alessandro, Alex and Nilmar. Nilmar, most of you might remember from the days when he paired up so well with Carlos Tevez at Corinthians a few years ago. Still, these three are considered to be among the best offensive trios in all of Brazil.

With this in mind, Inter took the initiative and went at the young Boca side and created more danger but was met with better defensive solutions and organization that kept the score sheet clean at the end of the first half.

But D’Alessandro was the player most motivated on Inter’s side of the ball and with good reason. He had two of the closest opportunities to score, both off free kicks. The first went right off the post and the second necessitated a spectacular dive from Boca keeper, Javier Garcia.

Boca had trouble getting to the Inter goal and in his debut, Luciano Figueroa was a complete non-factor due to the few passes he received.

In the second half, Inter found the difference maker off a spectacular goal by Alex, confirming his abilities. His shot went in near the right post from outside the penalty area. 1-0 to Inter.

Seeing no change to his own offensive set, Boca coach, Carlos Ischia, took off Figueroa for the young Ricardo Noir. But his time on the pitch was short. After a hard tackle on Magrao (a stomp really), the referee sent him off to an early shower. Red Card to Boca.

With the man advantage, Inter tilted the balance in their favor by cornering Boca on their side of the pitch. Boca held on as long as they could but again, Alex proved to be too much for them on this night. Off another unbelievable long distance shot, Alex was able to get it past Garcia for his second on the night and only 2 minutes from time. 2-0 to Inter.

Final Score: 2-0 to Inter.

I had this match ending 2-1 to Inter. I had no doubt that they could score two on Boca but I expected Boca to get at least one. Still, in 14 matches against Brazilian clubs, this is only Boca’s third loss. The other two? Against Santos in the 60s and against Fluminense in the semis of the 2008 Copa Libertadores.

The winner of this one will face the winner of the Chivas-River series in the Semi-Finals. Will there be a SuperClásico Semi-Final? So far, it doesn’t look likely.

Feel free to check the CONMEBOL website for results and information about upcoming matches and for those of you in need of a bracket to get your heads around the competition, get an updated one here.

Category: Copa Sudamericana News