3-1: El Mineiro goes through the round with Hulk’s ‘double’

Ang Atletico Mineirowith a ‘double’ of Hulk and a goal from Sávio, beaten 3-1 on Thursday Malayang Lambak, combined its leadership with group D and qualified a day before the round of 16 of the Copa Libertadores. The Brazilian champion now has 18 games without losing to the Libertadores.

Hulk scored in the first and second half, and Sávio put the icing on the cake in extra time, after William Vargas scored for Independiente.

The Belo Horizonte team reached 11 points with one game left and opened up a lead of 3 against Deportes Tolima, following them in the standings, and a bigger distance to Independiente (5) and América Mineiro (2) . ), his backyard. rivals and eliminated.

On the final day, next Wednesday, the home draw against Tolima will be enough to finish Mineiro as group leader, while the Colombian team will have to add to guarantee their classification regardless of Independiente’s result, which will host América Mineiro and still have a chance to climb to second place and keep another quota.

The Brazilian champion, led by Argentine coach Antonio ‘El Turco’ Mohamed, won despite his huge casualties, as he could not rely on goalkeeper Everson (covid) or the attackers Keno and Eduardo Vargas due to injury. . He also had to leave Argentine Matías Zaracho out of the game in the last minute due to injury.

Atlético Mineiro, before 28,800 spectators at the Mineirao stadium in Belo Horizonte, needed just a minute to produce a dangerous game, when goalkeeper Moisés Ramírez stopped striker Hulk, who received an assist within the area, which opened up scoring early.

The first pressure paid off after 8 minutes, when Hulk received a perfect pass from Allan inside the area and shot to the right of the goal defended by Ramírez to open the scoring.

Counter-attacks take advantage of visitation needs

Despite the slight advantage and playing at home, Mineiro returned their scoring line, preferred to play the ball in their field and tried to take advantage of Independiente’s desperation to launch counter-attacks on Argentine Nacho Fernández, Ademir and Hulk, who completed 18 goals (10 to Libertadores) in 19 games played this year.

This position allowed the Ecuadorian club to produce dangerous games, especially on the left, and dominate the game in the last twenty minutes of the first half. On one of those violations, Bauman, after receiving help from Sornoza, crashed the ball into a Rafael goalpost.

At 31, Bauman again, after a play by Sornoza, almost equalized the score. Despite Independiente’s apparent dominance, Atlético Mineiro developed the most dangerous plays, mainly in the counterattacks that came with Nacho Fernández and Ademir.

For the second half, the visitors continued to attack. But in the 56th minute, Hulk expanded by receiving a deep pass from Nathan, dominating inside the area and beating Ramírez with a high-class ball.

With a two -goal advantage, ‘El Turco’ preferred to bet on advantage management and sent Mariano to the field at the wheel in place of striker Eduardo Sasha. That position allowed the Ecuadorian team to increase their appearances on Rafael’s goal, mainly with Chavez and Sornoza, and almost allowed Sornoza to discount in the 30th minute.

Independiente reduced the distance in the 36th minute with a goal from right-back Vargas after an attack from the left. Encouraged by the discount, the visitor attacked in the last ten minutes and in the 8 minutes of the substitution, and pushed back a Mineiro who still preferred to wait for counterattacks. The substitution strategy paid off again, when, in the 50th minute, Sávio scored the third.