There was no 42-pass team goal, but compared to today’s Manchester derby at the Etihad, the Boca Juniors-River Plate Copa Libertadores final seemed like it was being played on another planet entirely.
Manchester City achieved what Juventus could not on Sunday, burying Manchester United when another Jose Mourinho smash and grab threatened. Sumptuous goals from David Silva and Sergio Aguero had given City a 2-0 lead, but a needless foul by Ederson on Romelu Lukaku allowed Anthony Martial to halve the deficit in the 58th minute.
The prophecy has come true, Boca Juniors and River Plate will play in the Copa Libertadores final.
Oh boy, this is the ultimate soccer apocalypse.
Over 100 years of ferocious rivalry meets in what the entire country highlights as the most important Superclásico of all time. Yes, that’s right, if you thought Barcelona–Real Madrid was the Clásico, this is the Superclásico: a reloaded, on steroids, bad mood version of a civilized European rivalry.
Thanks to River Plate’s stirring comeback against Gremio and Boca Juniors taking care of business against Palmeiras, the world was granted the spectacle it craved — the first-ever Copa Libertadores final meeting between Argentina’s eternal Superclásico rivals.
The much-anticipated Portland Timbers vs. Seattle Sounders Western Conference Semifinal first leg lived up to the hype at Providence Park on Sunday evening. Seattle started brightly and opened the scoring in the 10th minute through Raul Ruidiaz, but a 23-minute period of hell between the 17th and 40th minutes saw an equalizer from Jeremy Ebobisse, the go-ahead goal from Sebastian Blanco and forced injury substitutions to Cristian Roldan (groin) and Chad Marshall (knee).
Barcelona heaped the pressure on crisis-stricken Real Madrid Sunday with a 5-1 El Clásico victory at the Camp Nou. The first half was dominated by the home side and both Philippe Coutinho and Luis Suarez helped Barça to a 2-0 lead by the interval. But Real answered through Marcelo in the 50th minute and came extremely close to equalizing on a number of occasions before Suarez’s brilliant header in the 75th minute gave the league-leaders some breathing room.
On Sunday, Real Madrid and Barcelona square off in the 177th league edition of El Clasico, the greatest rivalry match in all of sports. Real leads the all-time series with 72 La Liga victories as compared to Barca’s 70 (the two sides have shared the spoils an additional 34 times), and the club from the Spanish capital desperately needs another victory to reduce the currently escalating gap in league play.
Barcelona vs. Real Madrid | Camp Nou
Sunday, October 28, 2018 | 11:15 a.m. ET
TV: beIN SPORTS USA or beIN SPORTS en Español
Stream: Fubo TV, Sling TV or beIN SPORTS CONNECT U.S.A
FC Barcelona has updated the world on the severity of the arm injury which forced Lionel Messi off in the 26th minute of the club’s 4-2 victory over Sevilla on Saturday, and it’s terrible news for fans of the beautiful game: Messi has fractured the radial bone in his right arm and will be out for three weeks.
Accordingly, Barca’s captain will miss Wednesday’s Champions League match against Inter Milan and, most notably, next Sunday’s El Clásico at the Camp Nou.