Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Peru’s Melgar, led by ex-Olympia coach Pablo Lavallón, achieved historic qualification for the South American Cup semi-finals on penalties (1-3), where they will face Independiente del Valle after a 0-0 draw on Thursday. to the Brazil international in the second leg of the quarter-finals.
Having dropped a 0-0 draw at home in the first leg last week, the Peruvians knew how to fight back against Colorado’s pressure in Porto Alegre to draw 0-0 again, and that was in it to force a decision on penalties. Very useful.
Melgar took advantage of Inter’s poor goalkeeping, which wasted its first three spells, to advance to the semi-finals of an international competition for the first time.
Lavalle’s team became the first club in their country to reach the semi-finals since 2003, beating South American Cienciano, the only Peruvian to reach the event.
The other semi-final will feature Brazilians Atletico Goianians and Sao Paulo.
Argentine Brian Romero, wearing an Inter shirt for the first time after arriving in the country from River Plate, showed his good record in South America in which he was the champion and scorer in 2020 with safety and justice, and at the age of 19, in seconds of the match, he played his first dangerous move and almost opened the scoring. , but he got caught while clearing the goalkeeper.
Despite the dominance of the home side in the first minutes, Perez Guedez surprised with a counterattack and forced goalkeeper Daniel to prevent Melgar from scoring.
Argentine Bernardo Cuesta, who scored eight goals in South America, also forced Daniel to look forward several times.
Melkar’s counterattacks occasionally interrupted Inter’s intense pressing, mainly with Wanderson and Romero, and again after 20 minutes Casita opened the scoring with a header.
In the 25th, Etanilsson headed home from Wanderson’s lift, but the goal was disallowed for offside.
The second half began with a similar display, with the international pressing and Melgar limiting himself to counter-attacks, and Casita becoming a man, defying the Brazilian’s decisions, including another shot from Wanderson and Bustos.
In spite of the need to score and the lack of a goal, Internazionale coach Mano Menezes decided to give the team attacking power with the entry of Daisen, in order not to define total control of the game and the classification of penalties. Allan Patrick Place.
Melker, for his part, preferred to touch the ball in an attempt to manage the tie and was more interested in penalties.
Inter’s impotence worsened in the 74th minute when midfielder Gabriel Arias was sent off for a strong tackle.
Menezes replaced two strikers, including Romero, to revamp his attack.
But the Peruvian team, limited in defending themselves, used their numerical advantage in the last minutes to go on the attack and threatened Daniel’s goal several times, but there was not enough time and they had to resign themselves to define the classification. on fines.
– Datasheet:
0. International: Daniel; Fabricio Bustos, Vitao, Gabriel Mercado, Rene; Gabriel, Edenilson, Carlos de Pena, Alan Patrick (m.65, Dyson); Wanderson (m.80, Pedro Henrique) and Brian Romero (m.80, Michael).
Trainer: Guy Menese.
0. Melgar: Carlos Casita; Alejandro Ramos, Alec Deneumostier, Leonel Galeano, Paolo Reyna; Horacio Orzan, Walter Tandazo (m.59, Kenji Cabrera), Alexis Arias (m.82, Jean Pierre Archimbaud), Martín Pérez Guedes, Cristian Bordacahar (m.45, Luis Ibérico); and Bernardo Costa.
Trainer: Pablo Lavallone.
Penalties (1-3): Cabrera, Cuesta and Iberico scored for Melgar and Galliano lost. Pedro Henrique was the only international to score as Etanilsson, Dyson and Carlos de Pena failed to score.
Referee: Chilean Roberto Tober fired Gabriel and advised Reina and De Pena.
Incidents: The second leg of the South American Cup quarter-final was played at the Beira-Rio stadium in Porto Alegre in front of 43,191 spectators.
