River Plate vs Racing Club 1-0

River Plate beat Racing Club 1-0 at El Monumental after Lautaro Rivero's first-half goal settled it, with VAR also ruling out a River strike late in the opening period.

Rivero opened the scoring in the 33rd minute, finishing from Ángel Correa to make it 1-0. River thought they had doubled the lead three minutes into first-half stoppage time when Correa was involved again, but VAR cancelled the goal. The home side went in 1-0 up.

River made two changes on 58 minutes, sending on Lautaro Pereyra and Juan Cruz Meza, while Racing reacted with two changes on 68 minutes and another two on 83 minutes as they chased an equaliser. They never found one, and River saw out the narrow lead through the closing stages, with Rafael Borré arriving for Thiago Almada three minutes into stoppage time.

The numbers were close in places and clear in others. Racing had 55% possession to River's 45%, and 449 passes to 456, but River had more shots, 12 to 9, more on target, 5 to 3, and a higher xG at 1.61 to 0.48. Corners finished level at 5-5, Racing committed 14 fouls to River's 9, and both sides finished with the same number of offsides.

Racing received four yellow cards, for Matías Zaracho in the 40th minute, Ezequiel Cannavo in the 42nd, Alejandro Joaquín Tello in the 59th and Tomás Conechny in the 66th. River's only booking went to Lucas Silva in the 88th minute.