LA PLATA, Argentina (Reuters) -River Plate ended a run of four consecutive draws with a 3-0 win at Gimnasia La Plata in the Argentine Primera Division Apertura tournament on Friday.
Marcelo Gallardo's side struggled to break down Gimnasia's defence early on, but took the lead 10 minutes before the break through Sebastian Driussi's close-range strike.
"It's always nice to score with this shirt, I think there were many games where I didn't score and luckily we scored three goals," Driussi said.
"We focused more, we had been working well but we were always missing that last bit of space to score. The victory fills us with confidence," the midfielder added.
Driussi set up Franco Mastantuono to double River's advantage after the interval with a neat finish before Rodrigo Aliendro added the third eight minutes from time.
Gimnasia looked for a consolation in the dying minutes, but River goalkeeper Franco Armani reacted brilliantly to keep out Nicolas Garayalde's shot.
River Plate are third in Group B on 25 points and will face Independiente del Valle in the Copa Libertadores on Wednesday before hosting Boca Juniors in the Argentine derby on April 27.
Gimnasia are 12th in the standings on 13 points.
(Reporting by Angelica Medina in Mexico City, editing by Ed Osmond)
