\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t It was Boca Juniors who took the bragging rights against River Plate on Sunday\u2019s Supercl\u00e1sico, with a 1-0 win thanks to a penalty by Qatar 2022-winner Leandro Paredes.<\/p>\n
At a packed Monumental stadium and with both teams arriving on a high note, with unbeaten streaks of their own, expectations were high for either club.<\/p>\n
River took control of the ball from the get-go, looking to impose its style on a Xeneize side that sought to exploit gaps in the rival defense, but it was Boca who scored first through a Leandro Paredes penalty.<\/p>\n
It proved to be an important win for Boca, who achieved its first triumph at the Monumental since March 2022. The result also sees the Xeneize in third place in Group A of the 2026 Torneo Apertura.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For River, it was the first defeat since the 1-0 loss to V\u00e9lez Sarsfield that precipitated the resignation of legendary coach Marcelo Gallardo, and the first since new coach Eduardo Coudet took over. The Millonario remains in second placed in Group B, losing ground to leader Independiente Rivadavia.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Here are our main takeaways from Sunday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
Paredes gets his first truly iconic moment Leandro Paredes\u2019 return to Boca Juniors in July 2025 was met with anticipation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At 31 years old, Paredes was not only returning from Europe at the height of his powers, but also taking up the Boca flag \u2014 the club where he rose through the academy and is a self-confessed fan of \u2014 at a time when the club was struggling.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, so far, he had seemed unable to steer Boca out of troubled waters and away from inconsistency.<\/p>\n
It all changed on Sunday. In the dying moments of the first half, Paredes took the game over and broke the deadlock.\u00a0<\/p>\n
From midfield, he placed a surgical pass to striker Miguel Merentiel, setting him up one-on-one with the goalkeeper and resulting in a penalty for the Xeneize.<\/p>\n
Not only did Paredes himself take the penalty, scoring without hesitation, but he celebrated by kissing the Boca badge and hitting the River fans with a Riquelme-esque \u201cTopo Gigio\u201d celebration, cupping his hands near his ears so as to better listen to the barrage of insults.<\/p>\n
It proved to be an iconic image, one that both Paredes and Boca needed going forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe celebration wasn\u2019t planned or anything, it just came to me like that,\u201d he said after the match. \u201cThe important thing was to win; we came here to win. I\u2019m proud of this group, which is becoming a team of grown men, a team that plays well and knows how to dig deep.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Chiqui\u2019 Tapia faces River fans\u2019 wrath With River trying anything to avoid defeat in the last minutes, the match\u2019s biggest controversy came in the 93rd minute.<\/p>\n
As the ball flew into the Xeneize\u2019s 18-yard box, Boca defender Lautaro Blanco pushed River\u2019s Lucas Mart\u00ednez Quarta to keep him from fighting for what could\u2019ve easily been a key ball.<\/p>\n
The entire Monumental roared for a penalty to be given, and a key chance to avoid defeat at the 11th hour. However, referee Dar\u00edo Herrera \u2014 one of three Argentine judges summoned by FIFA to the 2026 World Cup \u2014 denied the penalty.<\/p>\n
The call didn\u2019t sit well with the fans, who chose to target not Herrera, but Argentine Football Association president Claudio \u201cChiqui\u201d Tapia with their chants.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Chiqui\u2019 Tapia bot\u00f3n, \u201c\u2018Chiqui\u2019 Tapia bot\u00f3n\u201d was the chant sung by the fans after it became clear it would not be a penalty. Bot\u00f3n \u2014 Spanish for button \u2014 is slang for a snitch.<\/p>\n
Why aim at Tapia? Well, because referee H\u00e9ctor Paletta, who was at the VAR seat and should\u2019ve called Herrera to have him review the action, is one of Tapia\u2019s closest men within the college of referees.<\/p>\n
A key win for \u00dabeda The win proved a key one for Boca head coach Claudio \u201cSif\u00f3n\u201d \u00dabeda. The 56-year-old coach arrived at Boca with Miguel \u00c1ngel Russo and was kept on the job after the iconic boss\u2019s death in October 2025, following a run of good results.<\/p>\n
A loss to Racing in the 2025 Torneo Clausura semifinals hung a semi-permanent sword of Damocles over his head, with it looking like it could drop at any minute when Boca started 2026 with just three wins in its first 10 league games.<\/p>\n
However, the Xeneize is now undefeated in its last 10, and sits at the top of its Copa Libertadores group with two wins.<\/p>\n
Victory against River could prove the peace of mind \u00dabeda has been lacking for the better part of a year now.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe guys deserved a match like this,\u201d he said after the game. \u201cWe deserved the win. Maybe we could\u2019ve gotten one or two more goals, but we couldn\u2019t finish our chances because of the pitch. It\u2019s not an excuse, though; it was the same for both teams.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It was Boca Juniors who took the bragging rights against River Plate on Sunday\u2019s Supercl\u00e1sico, with a 1-0 win thanks to a penalty by Qatar 2022-winner Leandro Paredes. At a packed Monumental stadium and with both teams arriving on a high note, with unbeaten streaks of their own, expectations were high for either club. River […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":54302,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[984,66,2257,67,2342],"tags":[2979,1368,2980,1369,2340],"class_list":["post-54301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boca-juniors","category-football","category-river-plate","category-sports","category-superclasico","tag-boca-juniors","tag-football","tag-river-plate","tag-sports","tag-superclasico"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}