It took 210 minutes of football, spread across four weeks and, regrettably, two continents, for River Plate to eventually triumph in probably most infamous Copa Libertadores final in history with a 5-3 aggregate victory in Madrid.
Juan Quintero's extra-time stunner proved the decider, the Colombian's brilliant strike coming after Dario Benedetto's Boca Juniors opener had been cancelled out by Lucas Pratto for an aggregate score of 3-3 at the end of normal time.
Cristian Pavon, the exciting young winger who showed glimpses of his talent in Argentina's ill-fated World Cup campaign, was fit to start for Boca, with Carlos Tevez left on the bench, while River's biggest injury doubt coming in, Quinteiro, began what would end as the best night of his career, from the bench.
The game's early exchanges were predictably frantic and at the centre of it all was Pablo Perez, the Boca captain who'd been taken to hospital with an eye injury after the bus attack that sparked the relocation of this game in the first place.
He was fouled inside a minute, booked - and perhaps lucky not to see red - for a stamp before half-time, and involved in just about every incident of note in between.
Peeling to the back post off a corner, he caught a cracking volley on the swivel, but put it straight at Franco Armani, before his blocked shot whistled inches over the head of Nahitan Nandez, who would surely have nodded home.
Chances were coming not from carefully crafted build-up, but rebounds, set pieces and mistakes.
And somewhat ironically, it was a mistake from Boca's own goalkeeper, Esteban Andrada, that kick-started the chaos that led to their opener.
