River Plate seeks to turn the page after the hard blow it suffered on Saturday at the Monumental.The 1-4 against Tigre that the official undefeated in 2026 took was accompanied by a poor presentation, which was accompanied by several individual errors that the Millionaire paid for on the scoreboard.The public expressed itself with whistles and disapproval.But everything indicates that Marcelo Gallardo will not resort to “shock therapy.”
Looking ahead to the clash this Thursday, February 12 at 9:15 p.m. against ArgentinosJuniors at the Diego Armando Maradona stadium in La Paternal, the 50-year-old Muñeco does not plan to kick the board.Yes, you will make some adjustments, most of them obligatory.A modification is sung: it will not be from the game Fausto Vera, expelled before the Matador.Giuliano Galoppo or KevinCastaño will enter in his place.
The doubt is on the left side: the Uruguayan Matías Viña, replaced at halftime against Tigre due to his weak performance, or Marcos Acuña, still lacking rhythm and also irascible.
On the other hand, Santiago Beltrán would continue in goal because Franco Armani has not fully recovered from the discomfort in his right Achilles heel.The rest of the team would be the same one that fell to those led by Diego Dabove.
Gallardo’s statements minutes after the blow against Tigre foreshadowed this decision by the coach.”Do they hit you? You have to get up. In relation to what we had been evolving as a team, everything went wrong for us. We made many mistakes and Tigre took advantage of them very well. They were very good and we did not have the continuity in the improvement that we showed in the first three dates. A very bad night that generated the defeat,” he declared then, seeking to balance the criticism.
“I already talked about what 2025 was like, I have renewed expectations and the team was showing good things. We were being very healthy as a team. Defeats, more like those tonight, are going to have a tendency to retract the bad of what was the previous year and I am not going to stay with this or with the past,” he added.It is worth remembering that Núñez’s team was preceded by two wins (against Barracas Central and Gimnasia La Plata) and a 0-0 draw against Central in Rosario.
“I’m going to hold on to the good things we were doing, I’m going to analyze the bad things we did and make sure it doesn’t happen again because we had a bad game. We have to continue with the idea of the improvement we were having as a team. We were evolving. Today was an unexpected blow, which wasn’t in anyone’s head. Soccer has these things,” he concluded.Tigre exposed defensive and middle cracks that seemed to have been repaired.Of course, throughout the four dates, Riverle struggled in the last meters.The lack of effectiveness of the forwards (SebastiánDriussi – today injured -, Facundo Colidio and Maxi Salas) has been one of the problems without a solution.
However, there is an old precedent that shows that Gallardo does not kick the board when he trusts a team (and on Saturday he was optimistic about achieving a quick recovery): in January 2015, after losing 5-0 to Boca in a summer friendly in Mendoza, he confirmed the same eleven to play a few days later in the first Cup Winners’ Cup final against San Lorenzo.
River won 1-0 at the Nuevo Gasómetro and also by the slightest difference at the Monumental, in both cases with a goal from Uruguayan Carlos Sánchez.That reaction longs for the Doll to also happen against the Bug.And that it extends to the duel for the 32nd final of the Argentine Cup against Ciudad de Bolívar, scheduled for Tuesday the 17th at 10 p.m. at the La Pedrera Stadium, in San Luis.
