The Boca Juniors Courier
Squad19 Feb 2035
Fernando Bravo damages knee ligaments — 47 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 47 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings19 Feb 2035
A brace, and Exequiel Zeballos takes the afternoon — 8.55
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Exequiel Zeballos provided it, and the 8.55 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad19 Feb 2035
Lautaro Di Lollo in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Boca Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market19 Feb 2035
Marin Kolić is on his way
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Boca Juniors is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match17 Feb 2035
Boca Juniors find a way past Defensa y Justicia
Defensa y Justicia made Boca Juniors work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings19 Feb 2035
A masterclass from Lautaro Di Lollo
Marked 8.71 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad19 Feb 2035
Juan Barinaga falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings19 Feb 2035
Ninety minutes of Gonzalo Gelini at his very best
Marked 8.36. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Boca Juniors.
Match17 Feb 2035
Boca Juniors hit back inside 3 minutes
Defensa y Justicia held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Boca Juniors answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
In brief
- Squad Marcos Fredes signs a new deal
- Player ratings Nobody could get near Jabes Saralegui
- Market The Raúl Di María talk will not go away