Godoy Cruz fans flocked to pay tribute to their idol, while the circumstances of his death opened up one of football s most sensitive debates: how the sport must care for its employees mental, as well as physical health. Garcia grew up in the Barrio Colon neighbourhood on the impoverished fringes of Montevideo, and as a youngster was snapped up by Uruguayan giants Nacional, the same club that produced Luis Suarez. In 2008, two years after Suarez had left Montevideo for the Netherlands, a 17-year-old Garcia marked his first-team debut with a goal against Defensor Sporting, and quickly became a prodigious scorer for his boyhood club.
The second leg against an almost criminally timid and withdrawn Verdao will go down in the books as another perfect Gallardo game, even if it was not quite enough to overturn an enthralling tie. River prevailed 2-0 in Sao Paulo and also saw a goal and two penalty shouts turned down by VAR by the most razor-thin of margins, thus falling just short of what would have been an historic comeback. Rafael Borre also rattled the crossbar during a manic end to proceedings, in which River, despite being reduced to 10 men, refused to give up as Palmeiras hung on for dear life. Indeed, the stats told the story: the visitors accumulated 23 shots, 11 on target, while the Brazilians failed to test Franco Armani even once.