Clausura 2008: River Plate 1 - 0 Tigre

By: Christian | April 13th, 2008

River Plate 1 Tigre 0

In front of a nearly empty Monumental, River squeaked out a 1-0 win this afternoon over Tigre to maintain their position atop the Torneo Clausura.

Reverting yet again to a 3-3-3-1 formation, Diego Simeone’s River continued their current season form, playing unattractive but efficient football for much of the match. Despite a strong opponent in Tigre, who have played very well under coach Diego Cagna since their return to the top flight, River came away with the game’s only goal in the 50th minute thanks to a header by Falcao, and despite some scares, it would be enough for the victory.

Though fielding what has been called a formation that is supposed to produce offensive football, it instead reduced River’s already fragile backline to one less man, and it showed in the second half with Tigre looking for the equalizer. But it was Juan Pablo Carrizo to the rescue, who again had a stellar afternoon. More than any other player, the keeper is most responsible for the position that River are in, and today he proved it with his 6th consecutive clean sheet in league play.

Next for River, a must-win at home in the Copa Libertadores.

NOTES: Beyond today’s performance, the real story was the empty terraces due to the incidents at the Amalfitani two weeks ago. Thanks to the actions of a few, two games in the league have been devoid of any sort of atmosphere where true River supporters can support their club. An embarrassment.

River Plate
Juan Pablo Carrizo
Gustavo Cabral, Eduardo Tuzzio, Augusto Fernández (Paulo Ferrari, 80th)
Cristian Villagra, Oscar Ahumada, Matias Abelairas
Alexis Sánchez, Radamel Falcao García, Diego Buonanotte (Nicolás Domingo, 74th)
Sebastián Abreu (Leonardo Ponzio, 57th)