BUENOS AIRES: Boca Juniors have registered a formal complaint with local judicial authorities over ticket touting ahead of Saturday’s first leg of the Copa Libertadores final against their oldest rivals, River Plate.

The opening clash in the ‘Mother of all Superclasicos’ will be staged in Boca’s Bombonera and demand for tickets is many times the venue’s capacity.

Boca lodged a complaint over ticketing resales with the public prosecutor’s office and also urged action against online ticketing websites.

A statement said: “The club requested, once again before the courts, an initiation of an investigation to identify the perpetrators of the contravention and punish them.”

As far as the match is concerned, Boca coach Guillermo Barros Schelotto has to decide whether to rely in attack on Darío Benedetto or Ramon “Wanchope” Abila.

In his last 34 league matches Benedetto has scored 30 goals, surpassing the opening record set by Boca’s top scorer, Martin Palermo. However he has yet to regain that sort of form since missing nine months through a knee injury suffered last November.

Abila scored three crucial goals as a substitute for Benedetto in the semi-finals of the Copa Libertadores against Brazil’s Palmeiras. It seems likely that Barros Schelotto will repeat the trick against River on Saturday despite claims from many fans for them to start together.

Favourites River will be without their captain Leonardo Ponzio, who is nursing a muscle injury, and also their coach Marcelo Gallardo, who is suspended from attending the stadium for the first leg.

The two Argentinian giants have never met in the Libertadores final before, but River hold the upper hand in recent cup meetings between the two sides. River beat Boca in the Copa Sudamericana in 2014, the Copa Libertadores in 2015, and the Argentin Supercup earlier this year. The Millonarios also beat Boca 2-0 in the league at the Bombonera in September.

The last time the teams met in the Libertadores was at the last 16 stage in 2015, when Boca fans attacked River players with pepper spray, forcing the match to be abandoned at half time. Boca were expelled from the tournament, which River went on to win, for the third of their three Libertadores triumphs.

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