Libertadores: Boca Juniors cruise into knockout round

MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) -- Boca Juniors of Argentina and Ecuador's Deportivo Cuenca clinched the last two places in the Copa Libertadores round of 16 on Thursday.

Boca trounced Venezuelan club Deportivo Tachira 3-0 in Buenos Aires to top Group 2, while Cuenca qualified from second place after drawing 1-1 at Guarani of Paraguay.

The knockout round will be played over two legs on May 6 and 13. Each club is seeded according to its group results to decide the lineup, with group winners playing away in the first leg.

Pre-tournament favorite Boca will travel to Uruguay to face Defensor Sporting, while Brazilian hopefuls Palmeiras and Sport Recife, who have already played each other twice in the group stage, will meet again for a place in the quarterfinals.

The swine flu outbreak means confusion surrounds the two fixtures due to be played in Mexico. South American football federation CONMEBOL had announced the Mexican clubs would play home matches in Colombia, but the Colombian authorities today refused to host the games.

Mexican club San Luis is scheduled to play Nacional of Uruguay and Chivas of Guadalajara is set to face reigning Brazilian league champion Sao Paulo.

Boca advanced on Thursday with a double from leading goal scorer Martin Palermo, whose second strike took him to 200 goals for the storied Buenos Aires club.

Strike partner Rodrigo Palacio scored the third to seal the comfortable victory over Deportivo Tachira.

Deportivo Cuenca qualified from second place despite failing to hold the lead provided by a Rodrigo Texeira header after 2 minutes against Guarani. The Paraguayan club equalized with an Osvaldo Diaz free kick after 54 minutes.

In other matches played Thursday, Nacional of Uruguay beat Nacional of Paraguay 3-1 and River Plate of Argentina downed Universidad San Martin of Peru 3-0.

Nacional of Uruguay and Universidad San Martin of Peru had already qualified for the next round.

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