Boca Juniors' Copa Libertadores hopes against Fluminense in safe hands with Sergio Romero

On an autumn night at Old Trafford eight years ago, Manchester United found themselves nervously facing a tricky League Cup tie against opposition from England’s North East. Middlesbrough, of the second-tier Championship, proved plucky and held out for a 0-0 draw after extra time.

The penalty shoot-out then went badly for the home side, three of United’s senior England internationals failing with their spot-kicks. United’s goalkeeper that night, Argentina’s No 1 at the time, Sergio Romero, saw three Boro penalties zip past him.

Can that be the same “Chiquito” Romero, as he is known in his native land, who this weekend goes to the Copa Libertadores final at Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana Stadium with a good chance of being named the competition’s most valuable player in large part because of his eerily successful record stopping penalties? It is.

Thanks to Romero’s excellence, Boca Juniors have reached their 12th final of the Libertadores – South America’s equivalent of the Champions League – where they meet Brazil’s Fluminense, with the victor booking a ticket to next month's Club World Cup in Saudi Arabia.

Romero’s agility and anticipation in tie-breakers has been remarkable, a charmed solution each time Boca fail to break a knockout-round deadlock. They have needed him, given their habit of grinding out 0-0 draws in first legs.

Against Nacional of Uruguay at the last-16 stage, Romero kept out two spot-kicks after the sides shared four goals in open play in the second leg. Against compatriots Racing, Romero saved another pair of penalties in the quarter-final shoot-out. Come the semi-final’s decisive away leg at Brazil’s Palmeiras, it was déjà-vu: two spot-kicks saved by Romero to put Boca within reach of the club’s seventh