Boca Juniors carry a 1-0 lead into the second leg against O'Higgins, and the only goal that separates the teams so far came from Miguel Merentiel at La Bombonera. The return match is in Chile at Estadio El Teniente, where O'Higgins must overturn the deficit to keep its route to the Round of 16 alive.
That is why the search now turns to O'Higgins vs Boca Juniors. The winner moves one step closer to a place in the Round of 16, where Recoleta is already waiting, and Boca travel with the edge after a match that was decided by one finish and little else.
Merentiel's goal gave Boca a narrow reward after they returned from the 2026 FIFA World Cup break with a 2-0 victory over Sarmiento in the Copa Argentina. Leandro Paredes was back in the starting lineup after the World Cup, and Boca followed that with the first-leg win over O'Higgins before later slipping to a 3-0 defeat to Deportivo Riestra in league play. That mixed run leaves them with an advantage, but not much cushion.
O'Higgins has reasons to believe the tie is still open. The team finished second in Group C with 10 points in the CONMEBOL Sudamericana group stage, behind São Paulo and ahead of Millonarios and Boston River, and it beat Millonarios at home and away to get there. It also arrives unbeaten in its last five matches at Estadio El Teniente, with three wins and two draws.
There is, though, a catch in that home record. O'Higgins stayed active during the World Cup break through the Copa de Chile and the Copa de la Liga, and its Copa de la Liga final against Coquimbo Unido was postponed until October because of severe weather conditions. The interruption did not erase the run, but it did leave the team waiting for a final that never arrived on schedule.
So the second leg is set up as a test of control for Boca and urgency for O'Higgins. Boca need only protect a one-goal lead to move on, while O'Higgins need to find the kind of home result that turns a slim deficit into another round of the CONMEBOL Sudamericana route toward Barranquilla.
