Chivas Guadalajara and Internacional reached the final four of the Copa Sudamericana on Thursday night after maintaining their first leg advantages over River Plate and Boca Juniors respectively.Chivas had scored a surprise 2-1 victory at El Monumental, but did not have things all their own way back on home soil as River came out of the traps at full pace, taking a 3-2 lead on aggregate courtesy of goals inside the first twenty minutes from Gustavo Cabral and Radamel Falcao.
However, Efrian Flores' side were not going to surrender easily, and came out for the second half determined to restore their first leg advantage. Marco Fabian brought the tie level with a goal on the hour mark, and the Chivas supporters had barely finished celebrating that strike when Alberto Medina put the Mexican side 4-3 up just a few minutes later.
River were unable to find a futher breakthrough despite concerted pressure on the Chivas backline in the final quarter of an hour, as the Rojiblancos held out for a memorable aggregate victory.
With the Argentine Apertura taking priority, Boca Juniors coach Carlos Ischia sent out a largely second string eleven for the second leg of their quarter final with Internacional, leaving the Brazilians to take an assured 2-1 victory on the night.
Boca went into the game with a two goal deficit from the first leg in Brazil, and could have put an early dent in it had Luciano Figueroa not conspired to miss the target from a simple headed chance. As it was, it was Internacional who took the lead in the opening minutes of the second half - Marcão all but ending Boca's hope of a comeback.
Second half substitute Juan Roman Riquelme briefly threatened to orchestrate such a feat when he converted from the penalty spot with just over half an hour remaining, but any lingering doubts were put to rest when Alex restored Internacional's lead on the night with a neat finish from Andres D'Alessandro's clever pass.
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