Appealing to a defensive order script and taking advantage of the errors and the ineffectiveness of the premises, Olympia of Paraguay equaled this Thursday 1-1 with National Athletic in Medellin and advanced to the third phase of the Libertadores Cup.
Julio César Cáceres’s charges worked hard to take advantage of the result of the first leg, in which they won 3-1. Now, in Phase 3 of the Libertadores, the Dean will meet the Brazilian Fluminense, who beat Millonarios in his series.
The Gordian knot woven by Olimpia was untied, for a few minutes, by Andrés Andrade, who replaced Nelson Palacio, by capitalizing on a play by his teammates and defeating the resistance of goalkeeper Gastón Olveira, at 46 games.
Minutes later Andrade himself crashed the ball into the crossbar, so much so that it would have given another air to Nacional that needed to win by two goals to force, at least, the tiebreaker from the penalty spot.
However, the joy was short-lived for the locals because Saúl Salcedo took advantage of a huge miss by Kevin Mier to make it 1-1 at 57 minutes of play. Hopes were fading because time was running out and because the scoring chances created by Atlético Nacional did not come to fruition, including one by Jarlan Barrera, who shot the ball far from Olveira’s goal.
They played with ten men each for the last half hour
The teams played the last 30 minutes with ten players each because Felipe Aguilar, from Atlético Nacional, and Guillermo Paiva, from Olimpia, were expelled for mutual aggression.
Atlético Nacional in the second half was very different from the one that played the first 45, in which they failed to carburize any goal play. Contrary to what was expected, the locals started the game cautiously giving responsibility to Dorlan Pabón and Daniel Mantilla to create scoring options, which did not come.
The fans demanded “more action” from the locals because in the first leg the purslane eleven fell 1-3, and they were supposed to go out and overwhelm the visitor to close the gap but that did not happen. Olimpia had the opportunity to go ahead after 17 minutes but Fernando Cardozo was unable to capitalize on goalkeeper Mier’s false start.
Atlético Nacional, which had Hernán Darío Herrera on the technical bench to replace Alejandro Restrepo – who left the team due to poor results in the Libertadores and in the local tournament – showed a team without a compass and in which only Mantilla and Andrade they tried to do something to win the match.
DATA SHEET
At. National-Olimpia 1-1
1 – National Athletic: Kevin Wed; Hayen Palacios (m.59 J. Guzmán), Felipe Aguilar, Emmanuel Olivera, Danovis Banguero; Nelson Palacio (m.46. Andrés Andrade), Sebastián Gómez, Daniel Mantilla (m.71. Cristian Castro), Jarlan Barrera, Dorlan Pabón; Jefferson Duke (d.82. Ruyeri Blanco).
Coach: Hernan Dario Herrera
1 – Olympia: Gaston Olveira; Víctor Salazar, Saúl Salcedo, Antonlín Alcaraz, Iván Torres (m.82. Mateo Gamarra); Alejandro Silva (m.67. Sergio Otalvaro), Marcos Gómez, Richard Ortiz, Derlis González; Fernando Cardozo and Jorge Recalde (d.67. Guillermo Paiva)
Coach: Julio Cesar Caceres
Goals: 1-0, Andrés Andrade (m. 46); 1-1, Saul Salcedo (d. 57)
Referee: Argentine Patricio Loustau expelled Felipe Aguilar and admonished Sebastián Gómez, Emmanuel Olivera, Nelson Palacio and Jarlan Barrera, from Atlético Nacional
He also showed the red to Guillermo Paiva and admonished Richard Ortiz, from Olimpia
Incidents: Second leg of the second preliminary phase of the Copa Libertadores, played at the Atanasio Girardot stadium, in Medellín
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