Boca Juniors And River Plate Fixtures Set For FIFA 2025 Club World Cup

Boca Juniors and River Plate have learnt their respective opponents for the group stage of the FIFA 2025 Club World Cup. The pick of the bunch has to be the incoming showdown between River Plate and Inter Milan, a tie that will complete Group E and perhaps dictate the fate of River Plate for the entire tournament.

Given the form of both Boca and River, just months out from the tournament, it looks like it will be a challenging one, but as some of the biggest names in the world they have to compete at this competition. Their massive numbers of passionate fans will find it very difficult to accept anything less. Both sides will bring incredible noise, colour and fighting spirit to the tournament, but can they earn the results on the field too?

Boca Juniors and River Plate qualified for this tournament via their ranking in South American football as neither won the Copa Libertadores in the last four seasons. In fact, River Plate are the last non-Brazilian to win the Copa Libertadores but that came seven years ago when they famously defeated Boca Juniors in the 2018 final.

Boca Juniors

Boca Juniors has been drawn in group C with Bayern Munich, Benfica and Auckland City FC. At the moment it’s very hard to see how Boca makes it out of this group.

Boca Juniors may have made it to the 2023 Copa Libertadores final but their domestic form has been rocky for two years now, and this season they only made it as far as the quarter finals of the Copa Sudamericana; the second-tier continental competition in South America.

In the last year or two Boca has lost big talents like Alan Varela who was signed by Porto and Valentín Barco who moved to Brighton and has since went on loan to Sevilla in Spain. The problem is Boca hasn’t been able to replace those talents and recently they have been relying on an aging Edinson Cavani for magic in the final third, and he is far from the player he used to be.

Exequiel Zeballos, who is only 22, is the next rising star for Boca but apart from his flair Boca has given its fans little to get excited about as of late. The team is currently scrapping just to qualify for next years Copa Libertadores, sitting sixth in the table and reeling from a recent cup semi-final defeat from a 3-2 winning position against Velez Sarsfield. You fear for this Boca Juniors team against top competition.

River Plate

River Plate has been drawn in group E with Inter Milan, CF Monterrey, and Urawa Red Diamonds of Japan

River Plate may be doing better than their rivals Boca Juniors but not by very much at all, and like Boca they look set to finish 2024 without any major titles. Having said that their group draw could have been a lot worse, so as far as 2025 is concerned there is certainly hope for a decent tournament run.

River hit a crisis point this year which resulted in their iconic ex-manager Marcelo Gallardo returning to the club. Gallardo is a legend for taking River Plate to two Copa Libertadores victories during his last tenure but he has had a very slow start this time around. River currently sit fifth in the league table just two points above Boca.

It looks like River Plate will stumble ungraciously to a 2025 Copa Libertadores place, but they have done their best to throw away that privilege with some horribly inconsistent form all season. Recently they lost the Copa Libertadores semi-finals to Atlético Mineiro, a side who haven’t won a game in 12 matches since then, which says it all really. Even River Plate can’t help but lag behind the Brazilian teams quality given the gap in finances between Brazilian and Argentinian clubs at present.

It has been a year of flattering to deceive from River Plate. They have a budget fit to win the league and the most incredible fanbase and stadium, but the performances on the pitch have been way off what you would expect for a club of this grander, and if they don’t shape up, like Boca, they could be set for a really tough time at the FIFA 2025 Club World Cup next summer.