Rey and Vaccari saddened by U de Chile violence, want it settled on pitch | OneFootball

The protagonists of Independiente spoke this Friday, following the 0-0 draw as visitors against Instituto in Córdoba, about the chaos caused by their fans and those of Universidad de Chile, which forced the suspension of the Copa Sudamericana round of 16 rematch in Avellaneda.

The first to speak was captain Rodrigo Rey. "The match itself was sad, sad what happened, sad for football from start to finish. We were very scared for our families and those of the Chilean players. When we went to see our people near the corner, there were some with blood. These are things you never want to happen in football, they are not good," he lamented.

The goalkeeper also stated on TNT that as players they try to focus on the sport: "Like today, we have to keep playing, and that is what we have to do as a group. We need to keep our minds on that and on getting back to winning. We want this issue to never happen again, to be resolved in the best way, but at least let this be a wake-up call so it never happens again in any football stadium."

Julio Vaccari, in a conference, agreed: "First, as a football fan, I have a great sadness. One does not prepare for this career to talk about these types of situations but about football matters. Football should be sad about what happened," began the coach, who did not miss the chance to ask for the match to continue, awaiting Conmebol's decision: "One's desire is always for football matters to be resolved on the field. I know the people of Independiente are doing everything possible, and we are aligned behind that."

The coach also referred to how the situation affected them closely, both because of the Chileans on the team and their own relatives who were in the stands. "It was a complex few weeks and days, not only because we have players from Chile but because, in truth, all of us, to a greater or lesser extent, had family members in the stadium. From minute one, a player came up to me and said, 'Look, they're throwing things at the families, see if you can get them out,'" he recalled.

"It was a complex, unpleasant situation that affected us all. It's very difficult to get these situations out of your mind because we are human, and what we feel we bring to work. We are not prepared to talk about the subject; we want to talk about football, but it is something that affects us, and for me, the word that defines it is sadness," he concluded.

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