Athletico Paranaense beat fellow Brazilian Palmeiras, champion of the last two editions of the Copa Libertadores, 1-0 and took the lead in the dispute for a place in the tournament final.
The team led by former Brazilian coach Luiz Felipe Scolari prevailed with a goal from Alex Santana in the 23rd minute and, despite suffering an expulsion in the 70th minute, knew how to defend that advantage in the second half, in which the São Paulo team pressed for the draw in the first leg of the Libertadores semifinals.
After the victory in its difficult fort, the synthetic field of the Arena da Baixada stadium, Paranaense now needs at least a draw in the second leg, next week in Sao Paulo, to advance to the final, in which it will face winner of the duel between the also Brazilian Flamengo and the Argentine Vélez Sarfield.
In addition to putting at risk Palmeiras’ dream of playing in its third consecutive Libertadores final and seeking the three-time championship, the Curitiba club put an end to the undefeated team from São Paulo, which had gone 18 games without losing in the Libertadores.
Palmeiras pressed from the first minute, mainly with Argentine center forward José ‘Flaco’ López inside the area waiting for Rony and Dudu’s lifts from the wings and Raphael Veiga’s deep passes.
López starred in the first dangerous play after 5 minutes after recovering a ball in the attack and receiving a lift from Dudu that ended without aim.
But Paranaense immediately knew how to react and began to go on the attack with the Uruguayan Agustín Canobbio, Alex Santana and Vitinho.
At 13 minutes the locals almost opened the scoring in a play by Hugo Moura that Paraguayan Gustavo Gómez almost scored on his own door but was saved by goalkeeper Weverton.
Paranaense’s reaction had an effect in the 23rd minute when Santana opened the scoring after receiving a pass inside the box from Vitor Roque.
Santana himself narrowly increased the score seven minutes later amid strong pressure from Athletico on a Palmeiras team that was only limited to counterattacks.
In one of those counterattacks, with four minutes remaining, López headed out a lift by Rony and narrowly equalized for the continental champion.
Palmeiras’ situation was further complicated when their creative, Raphael Veiga, had to be replaced by Bruno Tabata due to an injury at the beginning of the second period.
However, Verdao took advantage of the fact that Paranaense apparently settled for 1-0 and went on the attack in search of a draw.
The domain changed sides and while Palmeiras began to press with plays by Tabata and Gabriel Menino, his rival only played defense.
The locals entrenched themselves in their field but their strategy of desisting from the attack and defending themselves was threatened in the 70th minute with the expulsion of Hugo Moura, immediately followed by the expulsion of Scolari himself for his complaints from the bench.
Palmeiras took advantage of the numerical advantage to increase the pressure even more and even defenders Gustavo Gómez and Joaquín Piquerez went on the attack.
With five minutes remaining, the Palmeiras coach, the Portuguese Abel Ferreira, decided to bet all his chips with the entry of three players to reinforce the attack, and Paranaense responded immediately with the entry of three strikers, including the Argentine striker Tomás Neck. and the dangerous Pablo.
But Palmeiras, despite being the clear dominator and the numerous scoring plays they generated, did not even have eight minutes of substitution to reach a draw and now they will have to play for a victory by more than one goal at home to go to his third final.
Data sheet:
Athletico Paranaense: Bento; Khellven, Pedro Henrique, Thiago Heleno, Ábner Vinicius; Hugo Moura, Fernandinho (m.95, Leo Cittadini), Alex Santana (m.91, Erick); Agustín Canobbio (m.85, Rómulo), Vítor Roque (m.85, Tomás Cuello) and Vitinho (m.85, Pablo).
Coach: Luiz Felipe Scolari.
Palmeiras: Weverton; Marcos Rocha (m.84, Mayque), Gustavo Gómez, Murilo, Joaquín Piquerez; Gabriel Menino, Ze Rafael (m.84, Eduard Atuesta), Raphael Veiga (m.52, Bruno Tabata); José López (m.64, Wesley), Rony (m.84, Rafael Navarro) and Dudú.
Coach: Abel Ferreira.
Goal: 1-0, m.23: Alex Santana.
Referee: Chilean Roberto Tobar sent off Moura and coach Luiz Felipe Scolari and gave Ze Rafael, Tabata and Vitinho a yellow card.
Incidents: first leg of the Copa Libertadores semifinals played at the Arena da Baixada stadium in Curitiba. EFE
