River Defeated Arsenal and Classifies to Quarter-finals El Millonario left the team from Sarandí halfway with Lucas Alario’s help and took a step towards the Argentine Cup.

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River Plate had a passionate reception from its fans upon its arrival at the Province of San Juan. Once on the field, Marcelo Gallardo’s team thanked their fans back while defeating Arsenal and consequently classifying to quarterfinals.

During the first half of the match, it was difficult for River to settle the field, and their opponent almost came through. For the rest of the match, The Greatest Club got clearer moves. There were a couple of heads from Lucas Alario, which deserved to be goals, and a shot volleyed by Ignacio Fernández after a studied play. Arsenal’s goalkeeper Fernando Pellegrino saved both heads.

Even though at the beginning of the second half Arsenal had several scoring chances, Sarandi’s team failed to hit River. Arturo Mina recovered quickly and dribbled a dangerous shoot to the corner, without success.

After another intelligent and risky play by Renso Pérez, Alario appeared once again, this time to open the scoring: Pellegrino could not foresee the center and the scorer had the ball under control to shoot 1-0.

Since then, River dominated the second half with several attempts to convert. There was an offensive play that Gonzalo Martínez could not define, a shot by Nacho Fernández that hit straight on the crossbar, and two forceful heads by Alario, one went out of the field and the other one hit the crossbar.

The next adversary for River will be Unión from Santa Fe Province. Unión has recently defeated Estudiantes and has got one step forward over the semifinals in the Argentine Cup.

RIVER PLATE: Augusto Batalla; Jorge Moreira, Jonatan Maidana, Arturo Mina, Milton Casco; Leonardo Ponzio (Captain), Ignacio Fernández; Andrés D’Alessandro, Gonzalo Martínez; Sebastián Driussi, and Lucas Alario. TD: Marcelo Gallardo.

Substitutes: Maximiliano Velazco, Gonzalo Montiel, Luis Olivera, Nicolás Domingo, Camilo Mayada, Tomás Andrade and Iván Alonso.

ARSENAL: Fernando Pellegrino; Leandro Marín, Luciano Vella; Jonathan Bottinelli (Captain), Claudio Corvalán; Franco Fragapane, Renso Pérez, Franco Bellocq, Gonzalo Bazán; Gabriel Sanabria and Julio Rodríguez. TD: Sergio Rondina.

Substitutes: Pablo Santillo, Gonzalo Papa, Martín Giménez, Tomás Berra, Federico Milo, Franco Costa and Juan Sánchez Sotelo.

Substitutions: Gimenez for Sanabria, Costa for Bazóan, Sánchez Sotel for Fragapane.

Goal: Alario (RP).

Booked: Alario (RP); Vella, Bellocq (A).

Referee: Patricio Loustau.

Fourth Referee: Carlos Stoklas.