River to appeal Santiago Beltrán's sending-off to Conmebol | OneFootball

At the VAR’s request, Derlis López showed the Millonario goalkeeper a red card with five minutes left before the end of the match.

It was a crazy game, and River won it. Eduardo Coudet’s team visited Carabobo in Venezuela for the fourth matchday of Group H and returned to Buenos Aires with three points that left them practically qualified for the next round. The match featured two penalties, two sendings-off—one of them for Santiago Beltrán when the Núñez side had no substitutions left—and a dramatic late goal by Maxi Salas, one of the players most criticized by the fans.

River played a good match overall. In the first half they could not take the lead—Bruera saved a penalty from Juanfer—even though they deserved to go into the break ahead on the scoreboard. In the second half, the goals came, as did Santiago Beltrán’s sending-off, which could have changed the outcome of the match, which at that point was 1-1.

Derlis López, the referee, showed Santiago Beltrán a red card—at the VAR’s request. In the 85th minute, he came off his line to beat Berríos to the ball, was left out of position and brought him down, but he did so when the Venezuelan side’s attacker was moving away from goal and there were also two River players covering behind him, so it was not a clear goalscoring opportunity.

At first, López had booked Beltrán, but then reviewed the play on VAR and showed him the red card. By that point, Coudet had already made all five substitutions, so Matías Viña took responsibility for going in goal with 5 minutes left in the match, plus stoppage time, which was another six minutes.

River will appeal the sending-off

Those in Núñez were not happy with the outcome. Bolavip has learned that River officials present in Venezuela made it known that they will go to Conmebol to file a complaint over Santiago Beltrán’s sending-off, which they consider unjust. A recent precedent is the 2025 Copa Libertadores case in which South American football’s governing body overturned Flamengo’s Gonzalo Plata’s red card.

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