Merentiel trained well with Boca but may not start Thursday | OneFootball

Boca continues its preparations for the hugely important clash against Universidad Católica, in which its future in the Copa Libertadores will be on the line. In today’s training session, Miguel Merentiel, one of the doubts due to his recent injury, responded well, but he will most likely start on the bench.

La Bestia had been a key piece against Cruzeiro, opening the scoring and netting another goal that was ruled out for a prior handball, in a solid performance that eased criticism over the large number of missed chances. Unfortunately for him, he suffered a muscle tear that kept him out of the starting lineup, but Claudio Úbeda decided to call him up anyway.

The Uruguayan had missed last Friday’s training session as a precaution, but he will be an option off the bench. The one definitely out in attack is Adam Bareiro, who is dealing with a muscle injury in the adductor and rectus abdominis area on the left side.

With this outlook, Úbeda is thinking of starting Milton Giménez, who has been playing from the opening whistle, and Exequiel Zeballos, who could be saying goodbye in front of his home crowd, as his relationship with the club from La Ribera appears close to ending with a move to Napoli.

The other option to patch up the attack is Ángel Romero, who has made only sporadic appearances and has played just six minutes in this Libertadores campaign, but who delivered a good performance when Úbeda gave him the chance against Huracán. Much less likely, but also called up for the match, is Lucas Janson, who already got chances earlier this year amid the team’s wave of injuries.

Third in Group D with seven points, Boca needs a win against the Chilean side, the group leader with 10, to advance to the round of 16 of the Libertadores. Any other result will eliminate them from the tournament and send them to the Copa Sudamericana playoffs. The decisive match will be on Thursday at 9:30 p.m.

Boca’s probable lineup vs. Universidad Católica, for the Copa Libertadores

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