The coach of Nacional, Álvaro Recoba, revealed the starting eleven for Saturday's match against River Plate, for the eighth round of the Clausura Tournament, and sent a clear message to Juan Ignacio Ramírez that he will risk missing the derby if he is booked.
Recoba, in a press conference held at Los Céspedes, began by announcing the starting lineup against River Plate, saying: "The team, more or less, has been announced with Lozano, Bocanegra, Polenta, Báez, Ginella, Yonatan (Rodríguez), José (Alberti), Didi (Diego Zabala), Pantera (Gonzalo Carneiro), and Colo (Juan Ignacio Ramírez). That's the eleven, you already knew it. That's the team."
Inadvertently, Recoba failed to mention the goalkeeper in the lineup. However, the goal will be defended by Salvador Ichazo, a goalkeeper whom the coach considers a starter, as he stated in a press conference after defeating Potencia with Nacho Suárez in goal: "The goalkeeper of Nacional is Salva (Salvador Ichazo)".
Players with a yellow card
Juan Ignacio Ramírez and Lucas Morales will face the match against River Plate with four yellow cards. This means that, if they receive a booking against River Plate, they will miss the derby against Peñarol.
Of the two players, Ramírez is at greater risk as he will be a starter. Faced with this situation, the coach sent a clear message to the striker.
"I didn't take that into account, they are football players and they are here to play football. I know Colo (Ramírez) has four yellow cards and Morales too. But this is football, and the moment I realize that something is not going 100% because of having four yellow cards, we will see what happens. Our objective does not cease to be the match against River."
Recoba added: "Colo is a forward, it is logical to expect defenders to receive yellow cards, besides he has enough experience to play football. A mishap can happen, but we are not in a position to underestimate a match."
River playing like against Peñarol
Chino Recoba talked about Saturday's opponent, saying: "River plays well, we have observed it, and they don't change their way of playing. One can imagine, from watching the previous matches, a team that plays from the back. Maybe one might think that when things don't go well, they should change, but it hasn't happened. Hopefully, they do it again (insist on playing from the back as they did against Peñarol and cost them a goal). It would be much better for us. I don't know the team they will field, but surely they are working to improve and keep playing the same way, which is by taking risks."