Representatives of two distant styles of football, Boca Juniors and Fluminense will compete in Rio de Janeiro this Saturday for the 2023 Copa Libertadores title, amid a tense climate due to fan clashes and repeated calls for a peaceful final.

The biggest idol of the blue-gold club from the Buenosairean district of La Boca, of which he is today the vice president.

If they win the seventh, Boca will tie with Independiente de Avellaneda as the top winner of the main Conmebol tournament.

Flu, one of the great clubs of Rio de Janeiro and Brazil, has never lifted the Libertadores trophy. The closest Laranjeiras came to the tricolor from Rio was in 2008, in their first appearance in the final, when they lost at Maracana in stoppage time to Liga de Quito.

The final will be directed by Colombian referee Wilmar Roldán.

The champion of Libertadores-2023 will compete in the Club World Cup in Saudi Arabia and the United States of America-2025 in December, will play in the final of Recopa Sudamericana-2024 and will start its participation in next year’s Libertadores from the group stage. .

But the atmosphere of football celebration in Cidade Maravilhosa, population 6.7 million and the most visited in Brazil, was interrupted on Thursday afternoon when hundreds of Fluminense rioters attacked another significant number of Boca fans gathered in the tourist town of Copacabana Beach.

Bullfights, multiple robberies and a general brawl that included throwing bottles and all kinds of blunt objects were the result of the confrontation, which the city’s military police later suppressed with tear gas, rubber bullets and shock bombs.

“We love the Brazilian people very much and we want them to love us too. Some violent people want to change this (…)”, said the president of Boca, Jorge Ameal, in a video published by Conmebol on its social networks and in the company of his colleague from Fluminense, Marijo Bittencourt.

“We will have the Maracana full of Brazilians, Argentinians, Fluminense fans, Boca fans and it is very important to establish a climate of peace, a climate that can unite two nations,” said the leader of Flu.

After various calls for peace and common sense, crowds of Boca fans took over a large section of Copacabana beach on Friday afternoon to show their support for the club with the popular “banderaz”, a classic of Argentine soccer fans.

Almost 150,000 Xeneiza fans arrived in Rio between last Monday and the early hours of this Saturday, according to estimates by Rio de Janeiro authorities, who have stepped up a mega security operation following the Copacabana incidents.

The Boca avalanche created hotel occupancy of 93%, mainly in the tourist districts of Copacabana and Ipanema, the main tourism operators in the city pointed out.

In order to avoid fights, the mayor’s office has ordered a ban on the sale and consumption of alcohol in the vicinity of the Maracana between 00:00 local time this Saturday (03:00 GMT) and 06:00 Sunday (09:00 GMT).

The scheme is similar to that agreed during the 2014 World Cup final and the opening and closing of the 2016 Olympic Games. Rigorous control measures inside and outside the stage also see the closure of several roads and exclusive traffic corridors for both.

With a rich history in its favor and a tendency to become a true predator when playing in the decisive moments of the Libertadores, Boca Juniors arrive with a slight advantage over Fluminense who rely on the ambitious and attacking style imposed by coach Fernando Diniz.

“We have been playing this game for a long time. Prepare it, talk about it, imagine it. “We will play against a great team that will not change the way they play to be in the final,” Xeneize coach Jorge Almirón said at a press conference on Friday at the Maracana.

Finalist of the Libertadores-2017 directed by Argentina’s Lanús, Almirón assured: “I feel very proud of the enthusiasm we generated in people. The largest mobilization of Boca fans in history. It is a big responsibility and we are aware of what is at stake.”

Tactically organized and aesthetically generous, Fluminense stand out in the Brasileirao as the best representative of traditional Brazilian ‘jogo bonita’, attacking football that produced great results throughout the tournament until it took them to their second historic Cup final.

“Tomorrow we will see two teams that deserved to reach the final. Boca has all our respect for its tradition, for its work in this tournament until the final (…). We are focused on the game and will give ourselves a lot of inspiration, said Diniz. (D)