River thrashes Sarmiento in Junin to qualify for next round El Millonario had an excellent evening playing against Sarmiento, qualifying for the League Cup quarterfinals: 7-0, with goals by Julian Alvarez -3-, Tomas Pochettino, Enzo Fernandez, Esequiel Barco, and Santiago Simon.

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Marcelo Gallardo's team got what it wanted in Junin: River asserted its game model and expertise to play a great match, not giving Sarmiento any chance to score and ensuring its qualification for the next round of the championship. Despite a fairly tight beginning, River took control of the match and practically dominated it all the way through.

After several attempts that failed to threaten the rival goal, thanks to Paulo Diaz and Tomas Pochettino, River had some very clear scoring chances at the feet of Enzo Fernandez, Julian Alvarez and Esequiel Barco, who set up good attacking plays with Nico De La Cruz. Sarmiento had a chance with an off-target header by Javier Toledo.

Off a corner kick, Pochettino received the ball in front of the goal and struck a killer shot, opening the scoring; Sarmiento made a mistake right after the kickoff, and Julian was quick to take advantage of it and set the score at 2-0. Before the first half came to an end, Milton Casco ran up the left-hand side and set up River’s No. 9 for the third goal.

In the opening minutes of the second half, Sarmiento was trying to take one goal back and made two shots on River's goal but failed to threaten Franco Armani. El Millonario responded with a long-range right-footed shot by Pochettino that was well saved by Josue Ayala. River’s fourth goal came off a pass from Julian to Enzo, who sent a crossed shot into the net.

River brew up a storm of goals, with a right-footed shot by Barco off a great play set up by De La Cruz, who recovered the ball on the rival side of the field and made an assist to the attacking midfielder. But there was more to come: Enzo Fernandez backheeled the ball to Julian, who controlled it and sent a powerful shot into Ayala’s top left corner. Santiago Simon came onto the field only to score the seventh goal in a matter of minutes.

Thanks to this wonderful performance, River has qualified for the quarterfinals and will now focus on Thursday’s match against Fortaleza, to continue asserting its presence in the CONMEBOL Libertadores. Next Sunday, River will play its last League Cup matchday against Platense, at the Monumental Stadium.

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