Tifos, fireworks, flares, flags, strips... El Monumental was dyed in red and white for the 264th River-Boca match, which set a new attendance record in the history of the Superclásicos. However, there is a precedent that casts doubt on this data.

A monumental and emotional Superclásico

Minutes before 15:00 this Sunday, the players of River Plate and Boca Juniors took to the pitch of a Mâs Monumental that looked… truly monumental. The stands were dyed red and white: two huge tifos, 50,000 flags, strips coming down from the top of the stands onto the pitch and even fireworks promised a real football party and a fight until the very last second. Even so, the fans were able to put aside the rivalry between the two teams in an emotional minute of silence for the death of Pope Francis just before the match.

The atmosphere in the stands was reflected in what happened on the pitch. River pressed forward, and 17-year-old Franco Mastantuono opened the scoring in the 25th minute with a spectacular free-kick into the top corner. However, twelve minutes later Miguel Merentiel beat the home keeper to level the scores. El Millonario regained control of the game before the end of the first half and Sebastián Driussi pushed the ball into the net in the 44th minute.

There were no goals after halftime, although Boca twice came close to equalising in the closing minutes. The match ended 2:1, and as soon as the final whistle blew, chants of a minute's silence for Boca, who are dead were heard in the Monumental. River closed slightly the gap in the Superclásicos statistics, which since Sunday are: 92 wins for Boca, 84 draws, 88 wins for River.

© River Plate | River Plate currently occupies 3rd place in Group B of Primera Division, while Boca Juniors leads Group A.

A controversial attendance record

Already before the game it was announced that the match would set a new attendance record for a Superclásico, as tickets were sold out in less than two hours. The previous record was set by the 84,567 fans who attended the match on 25 February 2024, but then the capacity of El Monumental was 84,593. Now, with a capacity of 85,018 people, the Superclásico was aiming for a historic full.

According to River Plate, the stadium was indeed completely full, beating the previous entry and thus setting the attendance record for a River-Boca match. But there is one match that could have had an even greater number of fans in the stands: the final of the Torneo Nacional played in 1976.

On 22 December of that year River and Boca met in the first final between the two teams. The match was played at Racing's El Cilindro and ended in a 1:0 victory for Boca Juniors. 69,099 tickets were sold for that match, but everyone agrees that there were more people in the stadium. However, the exact number is unknown. There are sources that speak of more than 70,000 people, many others estimate that there were around 90,000 spectators, while some go as high as 100,000, or even 106,000.

What is certain is that Sunday's Superclásico marks the best attendance of the 21st century. Meanwhile, the match with the best attendance in the history of the (to date) 264 meetings between Boca and River will remain a mystery.

© Racing Club | El Cilindro holds the record for the match with the most spectators in the history of Argentine football as 120,000 fans attended the Racing - Celtic Glasgow in 1967.