The 2017 Copa Libertadores champion squandered the advantage obtained in Buenos Aires, where they were victorious 0-1. In the return to the Arena do Gremio, River imposed the pace throughout the game but it was in the final minutes where it could turn the score to settle in the final of the most exciting Cup in the world.

Gremio after enduring the attacks of River would mark the first goal of the hand of Leonardo Gomes in the minute 35, taking an undeserved prize to the rest. The team led by Renato Gaúcho signed a very poor first half, always on the defensive and waiting for a counterattack. The goal of Gomes relaxed it in excess and in the last 15 minutes it saw its rival overcome the tie, first with the goal of the Colombian striker Rafael Santos Borré that with a header in the 81st minute would equal the actions and when they were playing added time, the Uruguayan referee Andrés Cunha resorted to the VAR to collect a penalty that Gonzalo Martínez changed by goal at minute 94, in addition to seeing how the final was going, Gremio was with 10 players for the expulsion of Bressan in the penalty play.

Like any good proud champion, Gremio does not accept the elimination of the Copa Libertadores and will look for the passage to the final in the desks, the Brazilian team will present a formal complaint to the Conmebol to ask for the points of the second match because Marcelo Gallardo, River’s coach gave instructions to his players even though he was suspended. “There was external interference from a person who was prevented from participating in the game, and then that person boasted about what he did,” said Nestor Hein, legal director of the Porto Alegre Club.

Article 56 of the Conmebol Disciplinary Regulation stipulates that a club may claim points in three circumstances: improper alignment, arbitral corruption or when a “serious incident, established in this Regulation, that has had an impact on the result has occurred of the game”. Although it seems incredible, Gremio considers that two of these three situations occurred.