The Olympia of Paraguay beat this Wednesday the Cesar Vallejo from Peru for 0-1 with a headed goal by striker Jorge Recalde in the first leg of the first round of the Copa Libertadores de América, which was played at the National Stadium in Lima.
The team led by former Peruvian international José ‘Chemo’ del Solar came out with intensity to look for the first half of the game and just after 9 minutes the attacker Osnar Noronha scared the Paraguayans with a shot that the rival goalkeeper, Alfredo Aguilar, ended up controlling No problem. Olimpia’s reaction was quick and, a few minutes later, Fernando Cardozo and Alejandro Silva appeared, although the parity on the scoreboard was not broken until the 29th minute of the duel with the header from Recalde after the assistance of central Antolín Alcaraz. One of the clearest chances for the Trujillo team to equalize the score came in the 39th minute, when after a corner kick Noronha was left alone in front of the frame, but he lacked efficiency to get the tie and finished off towards the post.
In the second half of the clash, the Paraguayan cast had several occasions to increase the score. The 2-0 seemed to be defined in the 54th minute, when Leandro Fleitas lost the ball and Derlis Gonzalez recovered it, who tried to hang it, but did not calculate well and the ball ended up wide. Twelve minutes later, the Peruvians responded with a free kick that could have given them an equalizer, when attacker Abdiel Arroyo, who came on as a substitute for Patricio Arce, looked for Aguilar’s frame with a shot from outside the area.
César Vallejo’s mission was not easy against the Dean, three-time champion of the Libertadores (1979, 1990 and 2002), but with this result and his score at 0, the Peruvian team added its first defeat at home and 435 minutes in that tournament without scoring a single goal. The last one was the great goal that midfielder Alejandro Hohberg scored against Sao Paulo in 2016. Thus, César Vallejo was frustrated in his attempt to take advantage of his football rhythm against a Paraguayan team that he has not been able to contract due to a sanction that was imposed on him and that arrived at the National Stadium in Lima with captain Richard Torres absent from his payroll due to muscle injury.
The second leg of the series will be played on February 16 at the Defensores del Chaco stadium in Asunción.