Copacabana chaos as Boca supporters come under attack

Despite a sea of blue and yellow and festive appearance emanating from Copacabana beach, an air of tension hung heavy as thousands of Boca Juniors fans pack into the city of Rio de Janeiro ahead of Saturday’s Copa Libertadores final.

As the day progressed more and more local fans, many decked out in the green, white and burgundy of Fluminense starred to assemble close to the famous beach with a heavy presence of local and riot police present.

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Shortly after 5 pm local time on Thursday evening, a number of local fans made their way into the area where many Boca fans were gathered on Copacabana and began to attack the Argentine fans with many women and children present.

Moments later, the Rio military police arrived and the situation became more dramatic for a moment with uniformed officers firing rubber bullets and tear gas at the Boca supporters who were the victims of the earlier aggression.

Last on Thursday, CONMEBOL issued a statement calling for “all of us to share together the moments of joy and celebration that our football gives us”, with a tone that was light years away from the seriousness of what happened.

Late last night, more tension flared, this time between Boca fans and the local police with tear gas being deployed to disperse the Argentine ‘hinchas’.