Partidazo: River Plate 5-0 Vélez Sársfield, Apertura 2007



On 9 September 2007 River Plate put on one of the finest displays of goalscoring prowess ever seen at the Estadio Monumantal. Their opponents Vélez Sársfield were no pushovers, they had been one of the most consistent top half finishers in the Argentine league for years, they were World Club Champoins in 1994 and only 18 months after this crushing defeat they were champions of Argentina once again.

River started the scoring with a cheeky set piece from Andrés Rios, then Fernando Belluschi scored an absolute cracker, sidestepping two players before hammering the ball so hard that it bounced off the crossbar and onto the goal line twice and still had enough pace on it to bounce back into the roof of the net. technically it should have been disallowed for a handball in the buildup but if the referee had 've stopped play, football would have lost a great goal.

In the 2nd half Belluschi fired in a brilliant kung-fu style volley for his second and Rivers 3rd before Augusto Fernández hit an unstoppable drive for number four. Belluschi finished off the rout and his best performance for the club with a brilliant chip that River Plate legend Ariel Ortega would've been proud of.

Aftermath

River Plate didn't come even close to winning the Apertura championship finishing 14th, four points behind Vélez who finished in 10th. Instead Lanús won their first ever championship.

Belluschi was sold to Greek side Olympiacos at the end of the season.

River won the following championship in convincing style, but then the very next season had the embarrassment of finishing at the very bottom of the league for the first time in their 107 year history. Since then they have struggled for form and now find themselves in serious danger of relegation at the end of the 2010-11 season.

For more great games involving South American teams, check out the rest of the Partidazo series.

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