MADRID: Madrid turned into Buenos Aires for a night on Sunday, with tens of thousands of Argentine fans transforming Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu into a stadium of their own.

River Plate fans were the only ones celebrating in the end, both at home and in Spain, after the historic victory over fierce rival Boca Juniors in the twice-suspended final of the Copa Libertadores.

River came from behind to beat Boca 3-1 in extra-time in an unforgettable and unique second leg to win South America’s equivalent of the Champions League 5-3 on aggregate.

One of the most anticipated matches in South American football finally came to a conclusion, nearly a month after the first leg was played in Argentina.

The final capped one of the most embarrassing chapters in South American football, which saw its leaders unable to stage the historic match on the continent. The second leg had to be played in the Spanish capital after it was marred by fan violence in Buenos Aires two weeks ago, when Boca players were injured before the game after River fans attacked the team bus with rocks, bottles and wood.

Football great Lionel Messi and FIFA President Gianni Infantino were among those at the “superclasico” at the Bernabeu, which saw the Argentine fans chanting throughout the match in a unique scene at the traditional European stadium.

It was River’s fourth Copa Libertadores title, and first since 2015. Boca Juniors remained on six titles and missed a chance to tie Argentina’s Independiente as the competition’s most successful club.

“We have shown we are superior,” River’s Leonardo Ponzio said. “After trying to stay quiet about everything that happened, we showed on the pitch we were better.”

Dario Benedetto put Boca ahead at the end of a bruising first half but River, who also came back twice in the 2-2 draw in the first leg at Boca’s Bombonera stadium, levelled in the 68th minute through striker Lucas Pratto after a superb team move.

River, whose coach Marcelo Gallardo was banned from the sidelines, were given a huge advantage when Boca’s Colombian midfielder Wilmar Barrios was sent off in the third minute of extra-time and seized it thanks to a sizzling strike from his compatriot Juan Fernando Quintero in the 109th minute.

Gonzalo Martinez sealed victory at the death with a tap in after Boca’s entire team had poured forward in search of an equaliser,

“I didn’t think about it,” Quintero said of his goal. “Camilo [Mayada] passed it to me and I looked for space and then hit it. It was a lovely goal and you have to celebrate it.”

Martinez added: “We were the only team out there that tried to win. We played the whole match in their half of the field.”

River’s victory means they will represent South America in the Club World Cup that kicks off on Dec 12 in the United Arab Emirates and guarantees them bragging rights over their neighbours for many years to come.

The club are expected to fly directly to the Middle East but striker Lucas Pratto said the players would take some time to celebrate before their first match on Dec. 18.

“We want to enjoy this because I don’t think we’ll win another Cup against Boca like this,” said Pratto.

The game was controversially moved 10,000 kilometres away from River’s Monumental stadium to Madrid as Boca’s team bus had been ambushed before the originally scheduled game, leaving several Boca players injured from the impact of the smashed windows and from tear gas that had been fired by police.

It meant that instead of a home game with the exclusive presence of River supporters, Real Madrid’s Bernabeu was equally-divided between fans of both sides, a highly unusual situation in the Copa Libertadores, South America’s equivalent of the Champions League.

The final, the first in the 58 years of the competition to be played outside of Latin America and the first between Argentina’s two biggest clubs, provoked furious protests from both clubs, their fans and leading figures in Argentine football. Luis Cesar Menotti, Argentina’s 1978 World Cup winning coach, called the switch “an aberration”.

River decried the loss of home advantage Boca had enjoyed in the first leg, while Boca claimed they should have been awarded the trophy by default, pointing to when they were thrown out of the competition in 2015 when River players were attacked with pepper spray at halftime.

There was also a deep sense of irony at the fact a competition named in honour of the liberators of south America was to be played in the home of their former rulers.

Despite the controversy, a total of 10,000 fans made the long journey over from Argentina for the occasion, with the nation’s considerable expatriate communities across Europe (250,000 reside in Spain alone) also flooding in to the Spanish capital, creating a carnival atmosphere that was mostly cordial.

“It’s difficult to talk about the fans right now,” Boca Juniors coach Guillermo Barros Schelotto said. “We couldn’t win the Copa for them. They endured a lot to come here from all different parts of the world. It was incredibly sad in the changing room. It hurts a lot for me not to win the Copa, especially because of the fans.”

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2018