The Sao Paulo beat this Thursday by 2-0 to Everton thanks to a great performance by Ecuadorian defender Robert Arboleda, who scored the first goal and gave the pass for Talles Costa to score the second, and assumed the leadership of Group D of the South American Cup.
The team from São Paulo, who last week won 3-2 in their visit to Ayacucho, now has 6 points, three points ahead of the Peruvian club, their escort, and five points over Everton and Bolivian Jorge Wilstermann, who They close the classification with a point.
The great protagonist in the match of the second day of the group stage of the South American was Arboleda, who this Thursday completed 199 games with Sao Paulo and who not only scored the first goal and gave the pass for the second, but also prevented provisionally the draw of Everton in the final minutes of the first half.
The São Paulo club, with an alternative team in which the starting goalkeeper Jandrei was conspicuous by his absence, who had an illness in the locker room, and Argentine forward Jonathan Calleri, the team’s scorer, had difficulty playing in the first minutes against the 30,307 fans who attended the Morumbí stadium in Sao Paulo.
With only seven of their usual starters, the team led by coach Rogerio Ceni only had their first clear chance at goal in the 12th minute, when Arboleda headed in a lift by Reinaldo but the ball was deflected by the Chilean defense.
Ten minutes later, in another foul called by Reinaldo, Juan arrived a little late and missed the opportunity to open the scoring.
But a minute later Reinaldo insisted with a lift towards the Everton box and Arboleda took advantage of a rebound to score Sao Paulo’s first goal.
Despite the fact that at that point in the game Sao Paulo was the clear dominator, with 60% of the possession of the ball, the team led by Argentine coach Francisco Meneghini reacted in the last minutes of the first half and Juan Cuevas almost got the tie in the 35th minute on a counterattack.
In the 41st minute, Argentine striker Lucas Di Yorio, the second highest scorer in the Chilean Championship, managed to disarm goalkeeper Volpi and shoot into the empty goal but an omnipresent saver Arboleda prevented the equalizing goal by cutting the ball on the line.
The Sao Paulo coach changed two forwards for two midfielders at the beginning of the second half by sending Patrick and Rodrigo Nestor to the field in the places of Toró and Luciano, which slowed down the team from São Paulo, left them practically on the defensive and allowed them to react to Everton.
Igor Gomes (Sao Paulo) disputes the ball today with Álvaro Madrid (Everton)
The Chileans advanced their scoring line and began to press, mainly on the left, where Di Yorio joined Cuevas.
In the 65th minute, Volpi saved a strong shot from Di Yorio and was again saved from conceding the goal because Cuevas failed to take advantage of the rebound. Four minutes later Arboleda again had to disarm Di Yorio when he had already invaded the area and immediately clear a uprising by Cuevas.
In the last ten minutes, with the entry of Calleri, Sao Paulo managed to improve, stop the Chileans’ attack and generate dangerous plays again.
The reaction paid off five minutes from the end of the game when Rigoni took a corner kick and Arboleda, from the near post, gave a back pass that allowed the 19-year-old Talles Costa to score his first professional goal for Sao Paul.
With the advantage of six goals, Sao Paulo only had to manage the last five minutes of the game and the four replacements, in which the Chileans totally turned to the attack, to guarantee their second victory in the South American and isolate themselves in the leadership from Group D.
