Millions of football mad fans in Argentina are eagerly counting down to the first ever "superclasico" Copa Libertadores final between the country's two powerhouse outfits: Boca Juniors and River Plate.
Beginning with Saturday's first leg at Boca's iconic Bombonera stadium fans of the two most popular teams in the country will be reaching fever pitch long before the return leg two weeks later at River's Monumental ground.
It will be a tie that's not for the faint hearted between two teams that allegedly command the support of 70 percent of the country's football fans.
It's the most explosive and combustible match in a nation in which fans have been banned from travelling to away matches since 2013 due to football-related violence that has seen 305 supporters killed in the last 50 years, according to the Salvemos al Futbol (Let's save football) charity.
The rivalry between the two sides, both originally from the working class La Boca district of Buenos Aires before River moved to the more upmarket Nunez neighbourhood, has been lauded as the greatest in world football by numerous newspapers and magazines.
Britain's The Observer claimed it "makes the Old Firm game" between Glasgow rivals Celtic and Rangers that has toxic sectarian undertones "look like a primary school kick-about."
- President can't sleep -
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However, it is hard to rein in the expectations when even the country's President Mauricio Macri, a Boca fan and the club's former chairman, has said: "I'm not going to be able to sleep over this." He even went so far as to suggest away fans be let into the stadiums to fire up an already white-hot atmosphere, but D'Onofrio wouldn't hear of it:
Former River defender and Argentina international Ramiro Funes Mori, currently playing for Villarreal in Spain, warned against building the tie into "a matter of life and death" before admitting that "whoever wins will have the glory."
- Millionaires v manure-shovellers -
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Ever since, the two clubs have carried nicknames coined by their rivals that reflect their social class, with River known as the "millionaires" and Boca the "manure-shovellers."
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