Boca will go into Tuesday night’s Copa Sudamericana semifinal first leg against Vasco da Gama without Leandro Paredes, and that single absence changes the shape of the match before a ball is kicked. Rodolfo Arruabarrena has settled on a 4-3-1-2 at La Bombonera, with Enner Valencia starting ahead of Miguel Merentiel.
That is why this fixture is drawing so much attention now. It is Boca’s semifinal at 21.30, at home, in a competition where the margin for error is small and the first leg can set the tone for the entire tie. The lineup also shows Williams Alarcón stepping in because of the captain’s absence, a reminder that this is not just one forced change but a reworked midfield and attack for a night that carries more weight than a normal home match.
Arruabarrena’s decision keeps Boca in a 4-3-1-2 rather than shifting to a more open 4-2-3-1, even though Sebastián Villa had been considered as a possible starter. That choice matters because it shows the coach preferred structure over a more aggressive setup, with Valencia selected for his aerial play instead of Merentiel, who had recently been a fixed starter and even scored the late equalizer in the 2-2 draw with La Gloria at the Mario Alberto Kempes.
The starting 11 reflects that calculation: Álvaro Montero; Leandro Lozano, Lautaro Di Lollo, Facundo Herrera, Lautaro Blanco; Santiago Ascacíbar, Milton Delgado, Williams Alarcón; Carlos Palacios; Leonel Flores and Enner Valencia. It is a lineup built to absorb the absence of Paredes while still giving Boca enough control to survive the first leg in front of its own crowd.
What happens next is straightforward and unforgiving. Boca gets one night to turn the reshuffled plan into an advantage before the return of the tie becomes the bigger question. If Valencia’s height and the new midfield hold up, the change will look deliberate; if not, the missing Paredes will be the reason Boca spent the semifinal first leg trying to solve a problem it would rather not have.
