Boca Juniors overcomes Palmeiras to set up Copa Libertadores final with fiercest rivals
Police in the Argentina's capital city of Buenos Aires will be waking up with an existential dread on Thursday - or a huge sense of excitement if they happen to like riot gear - with the news that the Copa Libertadores final sees a two-legged battle between Boca Juniors and River Plate.
It's a super Superclasico.
📹 ¡El festejo en el regreso al vestuario tras la clasificación a la final de la Copa Libertadores! pic.twitter.com/w7tHvF5CS9
— Boca Jrs. Oficial 🏆🏆 (@BocaJrsOficial) November 1, 2018
One of the fiercest rivalries in world football is to be given an extra boost with the two sides facing each other in the final of 'South America's Champions League' for the first time in history.
Boca will be looking for a seventh Copa win after a 2-2 draw against Brazilian side, Palmeiras, on Wednesday night gave the Argentineans a 4-2 aggregate victory. River Plate had overcome Gremio in the team's own semifinal second leg on Tuesday, in slightly controversial circumstances.
The first match in the two-legged final is due to take place in La Bombonera next Wednesday.
Wayne Rooney with another DC United MLS mission
Elsewhere on this side of The Pond on Wednesday night, David Villa showed that he was back in business after a spell out with injury with a goal to guide NYCFC to victory in one-off MLS playoff clash against Philadelphia Union. The New York side won 3-1 to set up a tasty two-legged affair against Atlanta United, starting this weekend.
Learned it from pops 💙 @Guaje7Villa 🗽 #ForTheCity pic.twitter.com/nKExLPUjom
— New York City FC (@NYCFC) November 1, 2018
The other winners were Portland Timbers who shocked FC Dallas in Frisco with a 2-1 victory thanks to a brace from Diego Valeri.
Thursday night is all about Wayne Rooney with the English striker, who has scored a remarkable 12 goals in the regular season, looking to take DC United a step further with playoff home encounter against Columbus Crew.
LAFC is also in action in a one-off clash against Real Salt Lake, with both sides looking to move through to the conference semifinals.
Copa del Rey continues with epic Thursday event
Back over to the Old Continent and the Copa del Rey continues today - and beIN SPORTS is proud to show it all off.
Santiago Solari lead Real Madrid through an away clash against Melilla on Wednesday with a 4-0 win, while Barcelona was less forceful, only overcoming third-tier side, Cultural Leonesa, by a 1-0 margin. A Camp Nou crisis, anyone? No?
Thursday brings a total of six ties starting at 11:05AM ET / 8:05AM PT with Sevilla taking on lower league Villanovense. That is followed directly by Villarreal's trip to Almeria and then Real Betis at Racing Santander.
In fact, the three games kick off a run of 14 live soccer games on the network over the next five days. Not bad, eh?
Tune into the XTRA at 7PM ET / 4PM PT for the best of all the day's cracking Copa action.
Real Madrid world goes quiet on new manager manhunt
The trail has gone a little cold in Real Madrid's race to find a new manager before having to give the job permanently to Solari. Antonio Conte seems to be completely out of the running leaving Arsene Wenger, Roberto Martinez and Jared Leto as the remaining viable candidates.
Elsewhere in the rumor mill and Barcelona's Malcom continues to be linked with both Tottenham and Arsenal, while Juan Mata could be leaving Manchester United to head to Juventus in January which would be a most intriguing move indeed.
