both River Plate and Boca Juniors already know their rivals in what will be the first edition of this competition. While the team led by Marcelo Gallardo was seeded and will face only one team from Europe, Boca led by Fernando Gago will have to play against two UEFA clubs, which present, a priori, a complex challenge to advance to the second round.
River and an old acquaintance
Being seeded put Gallardo’s team in a privileged place before the draw, since, in this way, the Millionaire avoided having two European rivals in their group. In addition, they could not share a zone with any Conmebol club either, eliminating the chance of facing a powerful Brazilian team at such an early stage.
The European team was inevitable and among the eight possibilities of pot two, the one that came out was the ball of Inter Milan, the reigning champion of Italy who is third in the current Serie A after 13 games and second in the league phase of the UEFA Champions League after five rounds.
“River Plate is a great club, a great institution and has a great coach. We will have to prepare in the best way. Facing a team like River is very difficult, they have great players. It will be a wonderful match,” Javier Zanetti, the former Argentine footballer who is currently vice-president of Inter Milan, said after the draw. For his part, Jorge Britto, River’s president, acknowledged that Inter were a “rival with a lot of history”, but made it clear that they are all difficult games.
The chance of the bolilleros made River also cross paths with a team that, perhaps, they would not have chosen: Monterrey, perhaps the strongest of the Mexican teams, which has a well-known coach for the River Plate team: Martín Demichelis. “We look at the opponents objectively and not as something personal. You have to analyse the games individually. Demichelis’ story has a lot to do with River, we know that,” Brito reflected when asked about the confrontation with the former coach of the institution. Demichelis is making his debut in Mexican soccer and is in the semifinals of the Liga MX Apertura, looking for a place in the final.
River’s opponent in the debut will be Urawa Red Diamonds, the Japanese team that qualified to win the AFC Champions League in 2022.
The group has the logical difficulty of a World Cup, but, at first glance, the match against Monterrey is shaping up to be the key match to think about advancing to the next round.
Palate, with a taste of revenge
Xeneize already knew that facing two European teams was inevitable and the draw decided that these would be Bayern Munich, the most powerful team in Germany, and Benfica of Portugal, where two Argentinian world champions play: Ángel Di María and Nicolás Otamendi.
The match against the Teutons may work for many Boca fans as a kind of revenge for the 2001 Intercontinental Cup final, when Bayern Munich lifted the trophy with a goal by Samuel Kuffour in the 109th minute.
Boca’s president, Juan Román Riquelme, started in that match, the last in which both teams met.
“It’s a difficult group. Boca Juniors is one of the teams with the most history in South America,” said Rui Costa, president of Benfica, to Boca. The Portuguese will be the first opponent of the team led by Fernando Gago.
The team that completes the group is Auckland City of New Zealand, which is the only representative of the Oceania Football Confederation and arrives by way of ranking.
The options of the Mexican teams
Pachuca will have the chance to face Real Madrid, current Champions League champion and clear candidate to stay in first place in a group that, at first glance, does not seem impossible to advance to the next phase. The other two opponents will be Al Hilal and Salzburg of Austria.
For its part, León will start its participation against Chelsea and will also face Flamengo, the two great rivals it will have for qualification in a group where Espérance Sportive of Tunisia is also located.
Messi opens the World Cup
Inter Miami will play the opening match against Al Ahly of Egypt. Lionel Messi’s team is part of Group A along with Palmeiras of Brazil, Porto of Portugal and the Egyptian team. Inter, now coached by Javier Mascherano, qualified for the World Cup by winning the Supporters Shield, the award for the best team of the MLS regular season in 2024.