River Won in Peru and Has the First Place Guaranteed Marcelo Gallardo’s team won against Melgar by 3-2 in Arequipa and owned its group at the CONMEBOL Libertadores Bridgestone with goals by Alario, Mayada and Nacho Fernández.

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River Plate arrived at Peru with high spirit after their victory against Boca Juniors and with a single objective: to guarantee the first place of Group 3 at the Libertadores after qualifying to the round of 16 against Emelec.

During the first half, River was superior from the beginning. It marked its presence with a corner shot and with a free kick by Lucas Alario that the goalkeeper Patricio Álvarez stopped. Nonetheless, the scorer had its rematch and shouted the first goal. After a corner shot from the left and a header, he proved to be one of the best to uneven the scoreboard.

Melgar had its chance with a kick that passed near Augusto Batalla’s right post, but River did not forgive with its following play: a great performance by Tomás Andrade, who danced from right to left and kicked a shot that the local goalkeeper deflected. However, Camilo Mayada took advantage of its bounce and scored the second goal for River.

During the second half, Mayada almost scored a great goal after a play with Larrondo and a cross that the local goalkeeper stopped. Later, Mina won in the area, and his header passed near the goal. Nevertheless, Melgar draw the score after a lack of attention from River through a kick by Emanuel Herrera.

However, River had more, and Ignacio Fernández almost instantly scored the third goal thanks to a full-length dive after a center kick by Mayada from the left. There could have been a fourth goal resulting from a face-to-face that Carlos Auzqui missed near Álvarez left post.

This way, El Millonario won the first place in its group and will define it as the local team for the round of 16. It will close its participation at the group phase on May 25th against Deportivo Independiente Medellín at the Monumental Stadium.

SÍNTESIS

MELGAR: Patricio Álvarez; Anderson Santamaría, Nilson Loyola, Dawhling Leudo, Carlos Ascues; Minzum Quina, Hernán Hinostroza, Alexis Arias, Omar Fernández; Ysrael Zúñiga (C) and Emanuel Herrera. COACH: Juan Reynoso.
Substitutes: Diego Penny, Pedro Requena, Wilmer Aguirre, Víctor Cedrón, Luis García, Patricio Arce and José Fernández Piedra.
Substitutions: Aguirre for Zúñiga, Arce for Quina, Fernández Piedra for Hinostroza.

RIVER PLATE: Augusto Batalla; Jorge Moreira, Arturo Mina, Luciano Lollo, Camilo Mayada; Tomás Andrade, Nicolás Domingo (C), Joaquín Arzura, Carlos Auzqui; Marcelo Larrondo and Lucas Alario. COACH: Marcelo Gallardo.
Substitutes: Maximiliano Velazco, Lucas Martínez Quarta, Zacarías Morán Correa, Ariel Rojas, Ignacio Fernández, Gonzalo Martínez and Sebastián Driussi.
Substitutions: Fernández for Alario, Martínez for Andrade, Driussi for Larrondo.

Goals: Fernández, Herrera (M); Alario, Mayada, Fernández (RP).

Booked: Loyola (M); Moreira (RP).

Referee: Jesús Valenzuela (Venezuela).
Assistant Referees: Carlos López and Luis Murillo (Venezuela).
Fourth Official: Alexis Herrera (Venezuela).

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