The Brazilian Cuiabá, with two goals from the veteran Elton at the end, won an unexpected 2-0 victory this Thursday against a Peruvian Melgar who deflated in the last minutes, on the first day of Group B of the Copa Sudamericana.
The team led by Argentine coach Néstor Lorenzo dominated the entire first half, but did not know how to finish off the job and found defeat when they already considered the distribution of points to be good.
Elton debuted his personal scoring account in minute 77, after taking advantage of the rejection of the penalty that he himself caused and missed.
The 36-year-old Brazilian striker would repeat in ’94 to sentence at the Arena Pantanal, which continues to enjoy good times after winning the Mato Grosso regional championship.
The victory places Pintado’s squad at the head of Group B of the South American Championship, with the same points as the Argentine Racing Club, which beat Uruguay’s River Plate 0-1.
However, the way in which the Brazilian team finished the match is far from how it started.
Cuiabá started with cramped legs against a Melgar who, despite being a visitor, set the pace, imposed aggressive pressure and stifled the rival’s ball exit.
The best chances of the first half fell on the side of the Peruvian team.
Alexis Arias, Luis Ibérico and Argentinean Bernardo Cuesta, Melgar’s idol, sailed almost unopposed at the front of the attack.
Arias wasted a clear opportunity by shooting wide from inside the area, while Cuesta ran into an inspired Walter, always attentive, quite the opposite of his defense, whose legs seemed to tremble with each attack from the Arequipa team.
Cuiabá had a hard time containing Melgar’s offensive transitions and the best news for them was going 0-0 at halftime.
Pintado realized that there was a problem and made two changes at halftime. Valdivia and Everton came on for Colombian midfielder Kelvin Osorio and Marcao Silva. The objective: to have a more fluid exit of the ball.
The team improved substantially. At least they began to fight on an equal footing with Néstor Lorenzo’s team.
And with fifteen minutes to go the heavens opened, when Ramos brought down Elton in the box. Penalty that Elton himself missed, but he turned the rebound into a goal.
To round off the night, the attacker headed the goal of tranquility in stoppage time and thus sealed the first victory in the Conmebol silver tournament for Cuiabá.
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