The Strongest He left the stadium alive this Thursday Atahualpa of Quito after achieving a goalless draw against the Catholic University of Ecuador despite playing about an hour with one less player due to the expulsion of the Argentine striker Martin Prost.
It was impossible for the Ecuadorian team to overcome the rocky defensive block posed by the La Paz team, whose resistance won a prize and now they hope to define the tie for their side in the second leg that will be played at the Hernando Siles stadium and thus qualify for the phase of groups of the Libertadores Cup.
An example of how difficult it was for the Camaratta to find holes in The Strongest’s defense is that they fired 16 times, but only 3 were on target.
For the first time in this Libertadores, the Catholic University he could not score any goals in the first half, since in the previous tie against Bolívar he had scored his three goals in the first 45 minutes of both matches.
From the first minutes, the local team was the dominator of the game, always hovering around the rival area but without enough success to beat the goal defended by the goalkeeper William Viscarra.
The clearest chance camera Colombian Yuber Mosquera had it in the first half, who in the 18th minute finished off a corner deflected.
Then they tried Walter Chala and Ismael Díaz from outside the area, but in the first Viscarra saved it and in the second the shot missed grazing the crossbar.
Despite barely having the ball, The Strongest he was dangerous on the counterattack, especially when the ball reached his attacking duo formed by the Argentine strikers Enrique Triverio and Prost.
In one of those came the play that marked the game, because Triverio served as a header to Prost a killer pass, but this, in his attempt to lengthen his leg to push the ball into the net, ended up hitting his loot in the face of the Ecuadorian goalkeeper Darwin Cuero, who had come out to clear the ball.
After a first moment of doubt, the Uruguayan referee Andres Matonte He was right to get the straight red card from the Argentine striker, since the fortuitous impact prevented Cuero from continuing on the field and he had to be replaced by José Cárdenas, who thus added his first minutes of the season with the Chatoleí shirt.
The expulsion sharpened the script of the game even more, since the Tiger he locked himself in his plot to try to defend the tie, while the numerical superiority motivated the “little blue train” even more to take the lead in this tie.
However, the score did not move because the sky-blue team insisted on trying to get into the area of the Bolivian team through the center, right where the visiting team accumulated more players, instead of trying their luck on the wings.
This is how the meeting came to an end, with a bitter taste for the Catholic Universitywho wasted a great opportunity to tip the key in his favor, and with a taste of triumph for The Strongestwhich now hopes to qualify for the group stage at the Hernando Siles in La Paz.
Data sheet:
0. Catholic University: Darwin Leather (m.42, José Cárdenas); Yuber Mosquera, Rockson Rentería, José Carabalí (m.45+2, Layan Loor), Gregori Anangonó; Kevin Minda, Facundo Martínez, Santiago Zamora (m.75, Willian Cevallos); Ismael Díaz, Walter Chalá and Cristian Martínez Borja (m.74, Rodrigo Rivas). Coach: Miguel Rondelli.
0. The Strongest: William Viscarra; Saúl Torres, Ismael Benegas, Gonzalo Castillo, Juan Pablo Aponte; Fernando Saucedo, Diego Wayar, Rodrigo Amaral (m.62, Jaime Arrascaita), Luciano Ursino (m.90+1, Jaime Villamil); Enrique Triverio (m.68, Jair Reinoso) and Martín Prost. Coach: Cristian Diaz.
Referee: the Uruguayan Andrés Matonte admonished Cristian Díaz (m.40), Reinoso (m.69), Rivas (m.76), Viscarra (m.87) and Minda (m.90+6). He expelled Prost with a direct red card (m.36),
Incidents: first leg of the third qualifying phase of the Copa Libertadores, played at the Atahualpa Olympic Stadium, in Quito, before some 5,000 spectators.
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