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

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

It was a crazy match, and River won it. Eduardo Coudet’s side 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 had two penalties, two red cards — one of them to 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 were unable to take the lead — Bruera saved a penalty from Juanfer — although they deserved to go into halftime ahead on the scoreboard. In the second half the goals came, as did Santiago Beltrán’s red card, which could have changed the outcome of the match, which at that point was 1-1.

Derlis López, the referee of the match, showed Santiago Beltrán a red card — at the VAR’s recommendation. In the 85th minute, he came out of the box to get to the ball before Berríos, was left out of position and brought him down, but he did so when the Venezuelan side’s attacker was moving wide, and there were also two River players covering behind him, so it was not a clear goal-scoring opportunity.

At first, López had booked Beltrán, but then reviewed it on VAR and showed him the red card. By then, 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 red card

They were not happy with the outcome in Núñez. Bolavip has learned that River directors present in Venezuela made it known that they will go to Conmebol to appeal Santiago Beltrán’s red card, which they consider unfair. 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.