Approaching the big one

As you should be aware by now – and as any of our readers who are living in Argentina will surely have been unable to avoid for the last week – Boca Juniors take on Grêmio of Porto Alegre on Wednesday night in the first leg of the final of the 2007 Copa Libertadores de América. The match will be played in La Bombonera and kick off at 9:45pm local time (1:45am on Thursday British Summer Time). Juan Román Riquelme missed Boca’s training session on Tuesday due to flu, but will be fine for the game itself, according to their official website. Riquelme’s loan from Villarreal of Spain runs out on the 30th of June, so this will be his last match in La Bombonera (of his current spell with the club, at any rate). As long as everything goes as expected, Boca’s starting XI will look like this…

Boca Juniors XI vs. Grêmio:

Mauricio Caranta

Hugo Ibarra —- Daniel Díaz —- Morel Rodríguez —- Clemente Rodríguez

Pablo Ledesma — Ever Banega — Neri Cardozo

Juan Román Riquelme

Rodrigo Palacio —- Martín Palermo

For the benefit of those who are unable to watch the game live, a rolling commentary (like that for the superclásico earlier in the season, and the Cúcuta match last week) will of course be available right here, unless something technical happens (which now I’ve announced it in advance, it probably will).