Kick-off was delayed. It's always delayed for the superclásico. You can guarantee that the players won't even take to the field until around twenty minutes later than scheduled.

In the meantime, an awful lot of media milled around on the pitch, along with a large sponsor's logo in the centre circle. It almost seems to be the law that every league clash between Boca Juniors and River Plate has to be played on a beautiful day, so the wait wasn't so bad for those in the ground. The world was watching, because believe it or not, the planet outside Great Britain does actually pay attention to this fixture, and more non-Argentine journalists are given accreditation for it every season. A not-so-subtle hint to our editor there, dear reader. I can dream.

When the match eventually got going, the players made up for lost time. River's defence parted like the Red Sea, allowing midfielder Pablo Ledesma to rush onto a Juan Román Riquelme through ball and stab Boca into the lead after a mere 43 seconds. It was the fastest goal by a Boca player in superclásico history, and with Boca the form team and River coming into the match on the back of seemingly their longest ever run of being utterly rubbish, it seemed the writing was on the wall.

And yet... Boca closed the visitors down quickly in midfield and got more men forward, but failed to add to their lead thanks in small part to their own poor finishing, but in much greater part to some inspirational saves from River goalkeeper Juan Pablo Carrizo. At half-time, River's players looked delighted to hear the whistle.

The second half, though, was rather different. This time it was River who were quick out of the traps, pressing forward, willing to shoot and look for the killer pass, and equalising through a finely taken Mauro Rosales effort just four minutes into the half. Suddenly, we had a game of football on our hands.

Although it didn't produce any more goals, the second half was an absolute cracker, swinging from end to end like nobody's business. It was also remarkably well-tempered, although in the context of talking about the super, that merely means the home side by and large remained aloof to the away side's niggling midfield fouls. Riquelme was the main target for these, and on one occasion midway through the second half this resulted in a free-kick which took a deflection, leading to the best save of the weekend (possibly anywhere in the world) from Carrizo who, in mid dive, flung out a trailing leg to clear as the ball looped towards the space he'd just vacated. For this and other displays, Carrizo's been awarded with the starting place in goal for Argentina's domestically-based squad's friendly with Chile on Wednesday.

In stoppage time, Boca's Martín Palermo and River's Marco Rubén took it in turns to miss not one but two sitters each, any of which would have won the game for their side. As it was, honours were even, and general opinion is that River played their best football of the campaign in the second half – although that could just be taken to mean that River actually played football.

Although failure to win the superclásico does their own title hopes little good, River will take satisfaction from the fact that they prevented Boca reclaiming the lead in the championship, after San Lorenzo had bounced back from defeat last weekend to beat Gimnasia the previous day. San Lorenzo are now two points ahead of Boca at the top, with reigning champions Estudiantes a further four back.

The derbies come thick and fast from this point on. It's fair to say, though, that the Avellaneda clash in a few weeks won't have as much impact on the title race as Boca vs River has. Racing find themselves second from bottom in the standings this week. They might even have been bottom, had Quilmes beaten Arsenal, but that match wasn't played as a result of a dispute between Quilmes and the security authorities which is becoming frankly tiresome. It's almost beginning to look doubtful whether any of Quilmes' home games in this championship will actually be played. Independiente, meanwhile, have finally sacked manager Jorge Burruchaga after a woeful home loss to Godoy Cruz, and have yet to announce a replacement. That Avellaneda match won't be quite the clash of titans it has been in the past.

Vélez – this columnist's tip for 'surprise team of the championship' – have kept up their own fight for - ahem - 8th or 9th place, winning thanks to the odd goal in five away to Banfield, having gone 3-0 up in 17 minutes. They've got bigger fish to fry, though, and will meet Emelec of Ecuador on Thursday night, knowing that a win would take them through to the second round of the Copa Libertadores – and make Brazil's Internacional do Porto Alegre the first holders in the competition's history to be eliminated in the group stage.

River don't have nearly so many concerns, of course, because they're out already. But at least they had something to shout about on Sunday. They're now unbeaten in the last six superclásicos, but far more importantly: Boca were hurt by it.

A video of extended highlights from the superclásico can be found here.

13th-15th April:
Colón de Santa Fé 1-1 Racing Club
Quilmes vs Arsenal de Sarandí – match postponed
San Lorenzo de Almagro 1-0 Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata
Independiente 0-2 Godoy Cruz de Mendoza
Banfield 2-3 Vélez Sarsfield
Rosario Central 3-0 Nueva Chicago
Belgrano de Córdoba 0-2 Newell's Old Boys
Gimnasia y Esgrima de Jujuy 0-0 Argentinos Juniors
Boca Juniors 1-1 River Plate
Estudiantes de La Plata 0-0 Lanús

Copa Libertadores 2007

12th April
Group 4:
Nacional (Uruguay) 2-0 Vélez