Clemente Montes scored the only goal as Universidad Católica beat Boca Juniors 1-0 at La Bombonera on the sixth matchday of the 2026 Copa Libertadores, a result that eliminated Boca Juniors from the tournament.
The strike came in the first half and proved decisive. Boca needed a win over Universidad Católica and a favorable result from Cruzeiro’s match against Barcelona de Guayaquil to change the group standings; instead they left the stadium out of the continental competition and will play the Copa Sudamericana playoffs. Montes said the goal was extra meaningful because it came at La Bombonera and helped his team qualify, adding that "Se silenció toda La Bombonera."
Montes described the finish to the broadcast: he celebrated when the ball took the curve, hit the post and went in, and said he could not believe it. He added that Universidad Católica had prepared a dynamic plan—marking Paredes, pushing the central defenders up and hitting on the counter—that, in his view, "salió a la perfección." Montes also thanked the supporters for their backing and said the qualification was what his team wanted.
The scoreboard left no room for third-party calculations. Had Boca drawn, they would still have been eliminated from the 2026 Copa Libertadores and transferred to the Copa Sudamericana; had they won while Cruzeiro also won, Boca would have advanced in second place. Cruzeiro’s head-to-head advantage over Boca in the group tiebreaker made the margin for error even smaller.
Coach decisions and second-half substitutions became focal points as the match ran down. Alan Velasco entered in the second half in place of Ander Herrera, a move that drew heavy criticism on social media after elimination. One Boca fan posted, "Si tiene dignidad se va solito. Un miedo tremendo tenía," and another wrote, "Cuando entró Velasco ya sabía que era imposible darlo vuelta." The reaction crystallized a divide between a squad that needed momentum and supporters who saw the change as symptomatic of deeper problems.
The loss ends Boca’s Libertadores campaign at the group stage and redirects the club into the Copa Sudamericana playoffs — a shorter, knock-out route that now stands between the team and any meaningful continental comeback this season. For Universidad Católica, Montes’ goal both silenced the famous home crowd and secured the result his team needed to advance.
The tension is immediate: Boca will have to reset quickly for the Sudamericana playoffs while handling scrutiny of personnel choices that followers seized on within minutes of the final whistle. The most consequential question now is whether the club can turn this abrupt exit into a focused push through the Sudamericana, or whether the criticism aimed at players like Velasco will define the next chapter of Boca’s season.
