The Melgar The Peruvian achieved on penalties (1-3) a historic classification in the semifinals of South American Cupwhere Ecuadorian Independiente del Valle will be measured after drawing 0-0 this Thursday with their visit to Brazilian Internacional in the second leg of the quarterfinals.
The team from Arequipa, who succumbed to a 0-0 draw at home last week in the first leg, knew how to resist the pressure from Colorado in Porto Alegre and again drew goalless to force the decision on penalties, if where it is more effective.
Melgar took advantage of Inter’s poor goalkeeping, which wasted its first three shots, and advanced to the semifinal of an international tournament for the first time.
Melgar achieved a new record by becoming the first club from his country to reach the semifinals since 2003, when Cienciano, the only Peruvian to reach this stage, won the Sudamericana. The other semi-final will be played between Brazilian Atlético Goianiense and Sao Paulo.
Argentine Braian Romero, who wore the Inter shirt for the first time after his arrival in the country from River Plate, showed his good record in South America, where he was champion and scorer in 2020 with Defense and Justice, and at the age of 19 Seconds of the game, he starred in his first dangerous game and almost opened the scoring, but he messed up when it came to getting rid of the goalkeeper.
Despite the locals dominating the opening minutes, Pérez Guedes surprised a counterattack and forced goalkeeper Daniel into a display to stop Melgar from scoring.
Argentine Bernardo Cuesta, currently the leading scorer in South America with eight goals, also forced Daniel to anticipate several times to prevent the ball from reaching Melgar’s center forward.
Melgar’s counterattacks only occasionally disrupted the intense pressure from Inter, mainly Wánderson and Romero, who again after 20 minutes narrowly opened the scoring with a header saved by Cáceda.
On 25 Edenilson headed in a header from Wánderson’s lift, but the goal was disallowed for offside.
The second half started with the same scenario, the Internacional pressing and Melgar limiting himself to counterattacks, and Cáceda became a figure by frustrating the finished Brazilians, including a shot from Wánderson and another from to Bustos.
Due to the lack of goals despite total control of the game and the need to score to avoid deciding the classification on penalties, Internacional coach Mano Menezes decided to give the team offensive power with Taison’s entry in place of Allan Patrick.
Melgar, for his part, preferred to hold the ball in an attempt to manage the tie and was more interested in penalties.
Inter’s lack of energy worsened in the 74th minute when midfielder Gabriel was sent off for a hard tackle on Arias. Menezes then replaced his two strikers, including Romero, to fuel his attack.
But the Peruvian team, who limited themselves to defending themselves, took advantage of their numerical advantage in the last minutes to continue attacking and threatened Daniel’s goal several times, but the time was not enough and they have to resign themselves to determining the classification in penalties.
DATA SHEET
0 – International: Daniel; Fabricio Bustos, Vitao, Gabriel Mercado, Rene; Gabriel, Edenilson, Carlos De Pena, Alan Patrick (m.65, Taison); Wánderson (m.80, Pedro Henrique) and Brian Romero (m.80, Mikael)
Coach: Mano Menezes
0 – Melgar: Carlos Caceda; 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 Cuesta
Instructor: Pablo Lavallen
Penalties (1-3): Cabrera, Cuesta, Ibérico scored for Melgar and Galeano failed. Only Pedro Henrique scored for International and Edenilson, Taison and Carlos de Pena failed.
Referee: Chilean Roberto Tobar fired Gabriel and advised Reyna and De Pena
Incidents: second leg for the quarterfinals of the South American Cup played at the Beira-Río stadium in Porto Alegre before 43,191 spectators
Source: La Verdad
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
