Gallardo’s demand to Juanfer Quintero during the match went unseen on TV | OneFootball

The stern expression Marcelo Gallardo wore from the opening whistle foretold that River’s night was going to end very badly. And so it did: a defeat on penalties against Independiente Rivadavia, the last one scored by Sebastián Villa, and elimination in the semifinals of the Copa Argentina. Fuming after another blow in his tenure, the coach held nothing back in the press conference. But he didn’t hold back earlier either, in the technical area at the Kempes, where he had a heated exchange with Juan Fernando Quintero.

Visibly upset because the Millonario couldn’t find ways to hurt a well-organized Lepra in Córdoba during the first half, the “Muñeco” exploded after a poorly executed attack and ended up arguing with the Colombian midfielder, one of those responsible for orchestrating the play and supplying the strikers whose powder was wet.

The TyC Sports cameras caught the coach’s fury up close, as he asked his player to link up more with his teammates. “Come on, come on!” he shouted, arms wide open, from the bench. And the No. 10 tried to justify his decision to shoot at goal: “I missed one, man.”

Minutes after the argument, and just as has happened in previous matches, Gallardo took him off the field and replaced him with Maximiliano Meza with half an hour left before the end. Unlike the last substitution against Talleres, when he was seen frustrated and cursing into the air, this time Quintero bowed his head and left without making a single gesture.

The River coach took it out on the hero of Madrid, affected by the lackluster performance of his teammates, but the truth is that it was a spark that stayed on the pitch. A common roughness of the game like any other. The two have a close relationship, Gallardo opened the doors of the club to him in all three of his cycles and Quintero considers him a “father.”

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.