River Plate take Copa lead to Quito's altitude

River Plate of Uruguay have a slim advantage in their Copa Sudamericana semi-final after beating Ecuador's Liga Deportiva Universitaria 2-1 in the first leg on Thursday night.

However, the visitors will be confident of overturning that when they take River back to Quito, where the altitude creates imposing conditions,

Liga began the game brightly, but fell behind in only the eighth minute as River hit them on the counter-attack with Richard Porta slotting home.

River then took control of the game for a stint, but Liga were level just after the half-hour mark, when Edison Mendez finished from Neicer Reasco's cross.

River looked much more convincing in the second half, and scored what proved to be the winner on the hour mark through Jorge Cordoba.

Liga could not find a response and instead it was River who went close to adding another in the final stages. Whether they come to rue their failure to do so remains to be seen.