Fluminense humiliated Oriente Petrolero de Bolivia with an overwhelming 1-10but despite the win, they did not make it to the round of 16 of the South American Cup, which was won by Unión de Santa Fe in group H. The Flu, under the command of Brazilian Fernando Diniz, obtained this wide victory with the triplets of Matheus Martins at 28 seconds, and at 41 and 54 minutes and German Cano at 9, 13 and 58 minutes, the shots of John Arias at 17, the striker Caio Paulista in 36, Manoel in the 65 and William Gomes in 75. The defender Sebastian Alvarez managed to discount in favor of the Bolivian team in the 16th.
Diniz’s team played this match at the Ramón Tahuichi Aguilera stadium with one eye on the match between Junior de Barranquilla and Unión de Santa Fe, which was going to define which team would go to the round of 16, which the Argentine team finally achieved. With these results, group H was led by Unión with 12 points, Fluminense with 11, Junior with 10 and Oriente Petrolero without points.
The Brazilians wasted no time and took the lead in the opening seconds of the match when Matheus Martins struck with a right foot to the center of the goal to open the scoring after 28 seconds. Argentine striker Germán Cano sent the ball to Wilson Quiñonez’s frame with the assistance of Jhon Arias achieving the second goal at 9 minutes and at 13 Nonato finished off towards the center that Cano, with a header, scored the third goal. The Refinero team defended itself with a header from Sebastián Álvarez at minute 16, although two minutes later Colombian Jhon Arias sent a cross down the right side scoring the fourth goal for the Flu at 17 minutes.
In minute 24 there was a friction between unborn and the Bolivian Hugo Rojas generating a confrontation between both teams that ended with red card and expulsion for both, in the 27th minute. At 36 minutes, Caio Paulista scored the fifth goal from the left wing that did not give Quiñonez time to react. The half dozen goals came with Martins in the 41st minute.
The pace of the second half remained intense, at 54 minutes Martins scored his third goal as did Cano at 58 minutes. The ninth goal came with a header from the Brazilian Manoel from the center of the area in the 65th minute and striker William Gomes scored the tenth goal in the 75th.
The fans of the Refiners launched a firecracker inside the field that stopped the game for a moment and the Police mobilized. The game ended before the 90 minutes were up. by decision of the Ecuadorian referee Guillermo Guerrero.
Unión thrashes and advances to the round of 16
With an inspired night by goalkeeper Santiago Mele, who saved a penalty, and with the forcefulness of Jonatan Álvez, the Argentine Unión de Santa Fe thrashed Junior this Thursday 0-4, in Barranquilla, and advanced to the round of 16. The Argentines went ahead with an own goal by Omar Albornoz, the account was fattened by Jonatan Álvez and Kevin Zenón and closed by Matías Gallego at the Roberto Meléndez Metropolitan Stadium in Barranquilla.
Junior’s bad night began when the defender Bathrobe he put the ball in his own door when trying to clear a center shot by Claudio Corvalán. Barely three minutes of play had passed. The first reaction of the locals was in charge of Daniel Giraldo, who demanded Mele, a goalkeeper who had a lot of work before the onslaught of those led by the Argentine Juan Cruz Real, especially in the first 20 minutes. Owner of the ball and the field, Junior charged again and again until Franco Calderón committed a penalty against striker Miguel Borja, who had earlier attempted with shots. Borja himself was the one to launch it, but his cannon shot was stopped by the Uruguayan Mele, who was on his way to becoming the figure of his team not only because of this save but because of others.
The horseshoe that the Tiburón mounted was of no use because the Tatengue was found well organized and with the capacity to block what was proposed by the local. With three minutes to close the first half, Junior received another blow. The visitors invented a counterattack and the Uruguayan At once He released, about 35 meters from the door, a cannon shot that goalkeeper Sebastián Viera could not control. 0-2. The scoreboard was frightening because in addition to going down the Brazilian Fluminense was thrashing Oriente Petrolero 6-1, and in the end they won 10-1, but it did not help either because they were second with 11 points, one behind the leader Unión de Santa Fe .
In other words, Junior lost his way to the round of 16 on the day in which he started as group leader with 10 points. Unión was second with 9, further back was Fluminense with 8. Paddling against the current, coach Cruz Real sent Venezuelan Luis ‘Cariaco’ González onto the field in the hope of opening the enemy wall. The public was barely settling in the stands for the second half when Unión wove a counterattack from his own area and finished it Kevin Zenon, who with a subtle touch beat Viera for 0-3. At that time Fluminense struck down Oriente Petrolero 8-1, with which Junior was definitely leaving the South American when everything made him think that he could go to the next round, because he only needed to win so as not to depend on anyone.
Unión de Santa Fe was in charge of exposing Junior’s flaws, whose only weapon of attack was centers that did not reach the recipient or remained in the head or legs of the visitors. In the absence of football, the Shark appealed to strong play trying to soften the rival, a tactic that did not work either. The puntillazo put it Galician, who, with three minutes remaining in the game, concluded another counterattack. A lapidary 0-4 for the Colombian team, which has one of the most expensive payrolls in the local league. Junior was a lackluster team with no ability to react to a rival that came looking for their passage to the next round and achieved it at the Metropolitan Stadium in Barranquilla.
Melgar strikes and qualifies
Melgar beat Cuiabá 3-1 this Thursday in the last game of group B and qualified for the round of 16 with 12 points and a better scoring balance than that of the Argentines from Racing, who also reached the same income. The Argentine formation, which reached the last day as the first and main favorite for the classification, fell at home 0-1 against the Uruguayans of River Plate and in the scoring balance it reached a positive of two, less than the four that Melgar completed . For the first time in its history, the Peruvian red and black team sealed its way to the round of 16 of the South American in a match played at the Monumental stadium of the National University of San Agustín, in the city of Arequipa.
Argentinian Néstor Lorenzo’s pupils took the lead in the 38th minute with a goal from Jean-Pierre Archimbaud, who finished with his left foot after receiving a corner kick from Martín Pérez Guedes. Cuiabá adjusted his attack to match the Arequipeños, but Joaquim and Marquinhos played a dangerous game, which earned them yellow cards.
During the first 45 minutes, Jhonny Vidales was in charge of Melgar’s artillery with shots from outside the area and assisting his teammates, while the Colombian Kevin Osorio did the same for Cuiabá, who remained more defensive.
After going through the locker room, Melgar’s scorer, Bernardo Cuesta, entered for Vidales, eager to increase the score, but a few minutes later he was reprimanded for committing a foul on Joaquim. However, at 61 minutes of play he was Gustavo Nescau who made it 1-1 for Cuiabá with an accurate header after connecting a cross into the area by Igor Cariús.
The current leader of the Peruvian League 1 did not lower his arms and at 85 minutes, when everything seemed lost, Christian Bordacahar he also headed the second for the red lions with an assist from Kenji Cabrera. Bordacahar repeated with another header in the 89th minute after a pass from Cuesta, which finalized the result in Arequipa.
Almost in parallel, the Uruguayan River Plate scored their goal in Argentina, which, against all odds, allowed the Peruvian team to climb to the first position of their group and, thus, access to the round of 16 of the tournament. The group stage of the Copa Sudamericana ends this Thursday and the leaders of each of the five groups qualify for the round of 16, accompanied by the third in each group of the Libertadores.
Racing falls to River and is eliminated
Racing Club fell 0-1 at home against River Plate Montevideo and, after Melgar’s victory, was relegated to second place in the group and was eliminated from the continental competition. A solitary goal by Horacio Salaberry allowed the visiting team to prevail in the ‘Cilindro de Avellaneda’ before a crowd of people who lived the last minutes pending the result in Arequipa between Melgar and Cuiabá to know the fate of Racing in this contest. Fernando Gago’s team lost only its second game of the season but ends the semester eliminated from the round of 16 of the Sudamericana and after being left out of the final of the Professional League Cup.
Javier Correa was the great offensive card for Racing who had eight options to score, but the lack of aim and the great stellar performance of goalkeeper Fabrizio Correa prevented the locals from opening their scoring. Jonathan Gómez, the Colombian Edwin Cardona, Tomás Chancalay, Carlos Alcaraz and the admitted Fabricio Domínguez and Iván Pillud also had their options in a match that had Racing as a broad dominator of the pitch and the ball but could not translate it into a goal .
On the visiting side, River Plate came to this game with a clear strategy: endure the Academy’s offensives and seek to score on the counterattack. After the announcements of Matías Ocampo and Thiago Borbas, with two scoring chances, in the 66th minute Horace Salaberry He connected a shot from the right after a center by Gonzalo ‘Chori’ Castro that left goalkeeper Matías Tagliamonte without reaction and became the only goal of the game.
The end was pure anguish for the players, coaching staff and fans of the local team who, with each goal that came from Melgar from Arequipa, transformed the fear of being eliminated from the Copa Sudamericana into a sad reality. The unease reached Racing, while River Plate closed their participation in the tournament with a resounding away victory against Fernando Gago’s lofty team.