Di Carlo's warning before River v Central: «15m fans on alert» | OneFootball

Rosario Central beat Racing in Arroyito on a night full of controversy, which escalated after posts by Ángel Di María and, later, Juan Cruz Komar. Now Canalla will face River, and in Núñez they are already being cautious. “We have to stay on high alert,” said their president, Stéfano Di Carlo, echoing the historic phrase coined by Marcelo Gallardo during his first spell at the club.

“We have to stay alert. This is one unit; the whole River family is one unit, especially in decisive moments, it has always been that way. Players, coaching staff, directors, and River’s 15 million fans. There are going to be 15 million people paying attention, watching, on high alert, 85,000 in the stadium, on high alert. Hopefully everything goes well because obviously that would be best for everyone,” he said in an interview with the streaming program “Y ya lo ve,” on the Love/ST channel.

The truth is that at River they feel they will have to be very careful on the night at the Monumental and manage their anxiety on the field against an opponent that usually takes advantage of the emotional swings of matches. In fact, in 2025, Marcelo Gallardo’s team at the time went down to 10 men after Juan Carlos Portillo was sent off early for two fouls on Di María.

River, its current form, and the signings to come Beyond the match itself, the River president also referred to Coudet’s team’s current moment and the upcoming transfer window, where he promised they would be very active. “River is going to strengthen the squad, that’s a fact. The other day I was thinking that before becoming a director I was always a River fan; I was outside the club’s leadership when I was very young, and sometimes when you see things you don’t like about River’s football, its present, the situation, you kick up a fuss and complain and demand answers as a fan.”

Responding to the insults that have become commonplace around River in recent matches, Di Carlo said: “It is absolutely valid, it’s what I did and have done all my life. Generally, you do that when you feel that those in charge of the club don’t understand what is happening. In that sense, I want to say that we are the first to understand how complex this moment is.”

In any case, the president stressed that although the team is not dazzling, it is in decisive stages and results have gone its way in these first months of the Coudet era. “This is a moment that has brought us here with enormous credit to this squad and above all to Chacho, but beyond that, of course River still isn’t fully convincing in the way it plays football”.

“Maybe any other team in Argentina, with this current situation—top of its Sudamericana group and still in contention in a semifinal—would be satisfied. But we at River feel that River has to keep progressing and play better. That’s where I say, ‘let the River fan and club member be assured that we all see the same thing, that we are aware of the issues we have to address.’ We are already thinking, planning, and working because River has to keep growing”

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