Sport Huancayo remain on top of the Peruvian Clausura after winning 1-0 at Real Garcilaso

Monday, the 16th of September 2019, 15:00 local time (20:00 UTC), Tupac Amaru Stadium, Sicuani, Peru, the seventh round of Liga 1, Clausura.

This is the second consecutive game which Real Garcilaso played at Tupac Amaru Stadium in Sicuani as their home ground, due to the works on the field at Inca Garcilaso de la Vega Stadium in Cusco. The first time they lost 1-0 to Alianza Universidad de Huanuco. The story repeated with the only difference that the visitors' goal came earlier and that Sport Huancayo are leaders of the Peruvian Clausura and needed a win to stay on top. 

The two teams are in very distinctive shapes. Real Garcilaso are in trouble, in one of the worst moments of their rather short history, exactly when they were supposed to celebrate 10 years of existence. Head coach Juan Reynoso left a few weeks ago and chaos ensued, with interim coach Ariel Paz unable to cope. New coaching staff arrived last week, with Javier Arce as the new but unofficial head coach, as he came from Binacional, and the Peruvian regulations prohibit that someone were head coach of two teams in the same competition and in the same year. So, Javier Arce will remain in the stands until the end of the year and Javier Escobedo, his assistant, will be the official head coach and stays on the bench.

On the other hand, Sport Huancayo are in a very good moment, as leaders of the Clausura. They played very well, defending most of the time and launching dangerous counterattacks.

In the first half, Real Garcilaso dominated the game, had most of the possession, attacked, but had just a few opportunities, especially by Danilo Carando, whose headers (17' and 24') were saved by Libman. 

The second half started just the same, with the home side attacking continuously, but rather chaotically. However, a good chance arrived when newly-entered Gino Guerrero received a pass inside the area on the left, but his shot went wide (52'). The visitors were very pragmatic and scored at their first opportunity: a very strong right-footed shot by Marcos Lliuya from outside the area was saved by Ferreyra, but the ball came within easy reach by Carlos Neumann who scored from short range: 0-1 (60').

This score remained until the end, despite the hosts' desperate efforts to equalize. Even more than that, the visitors had the biggest goal opportunities on the break, but missed them. Nevertheless, their only goal was enough to secure the three points and the top of the classification right before the game against second-classified Universitario de Deportes.

Real Garcilaso: Ferreyra - Herrera, Canova, Quina, Cossio - Miguez, Archimbaud (Rengifo 80') - Ismodes (Souza 70'), Ramua, Lecaros (Guerrero 46') - Carando. Head coach: Javier Escobedo.

Sport Huancyo: Libman - Carraza, Maldonado, Balta, Corrales - Villar, Salcedo - Pena (Valverde 66'), Lliuya, Bazan (Benitez 75') - Neumann (Ross 69'). Head coach: Carlos Ramacciotti.

Referee: Edwin Ordonez.

Yellow card: Balta 19'.

If everything seems to go steady for Sport Huancayo, Real Garcilaso are in need of a "restart" button. Let's see if the new coaching staff is able to push that button, as they already missed the first chance for this. The next game will be an even more difficult one, away at Alianza Lima.
Full results, tables and fixtures:

Round 7 (13-16 September 2019)

Ayacucho – Sport Boys 0-1

Pirata FC – Alianza Universidad 0-0

Universidad San Martín – FBC Melgar 1-1

UTC – Alianza Lima 1-1

Academia Cantolao – Universidad César Vallejo 1-0

Universitario – Binacional 2-0

Carlos A. Mannucci – Unión Comercio 2-1

Deportivo Municipal – Sporting Cristal 0-1

Real Garcilaso – Sport Huancayo 0-1

Clausura table

1	Sport Huancayo	7	5	1	1	12-7	16	Qualified for the play-off
2	Universitario de Deportes	7	5	1	1	8-3	16
3	Alianza Lima	7	4	2	1	13-10	14
4	FBC Melgar	7	4	1	2	12-5	13
5	Sporting Cristal	7	4	1	2	14-9	13
6	Carlos A. Mannucci	7	4	1	2	6-4	13
7	Unión Comercio	7	3	2	2	9-7	11
8	Sport Boys	7	3	2	2	10-10	11
9	Alianza Universidad	7	3	1	3	8-8	10
10	Universidad San Martín	7	2	3	2	8-7	9
11	Binacional	7	1	5	1	7-8	8
12	Academia Cantolao	7	2	2	3	8-10	8
13	Ayacucho FC	7	2	1	4	6-11	7
14	Universidad César Vallejo	7	1	3	3	7-9	6
15	Real Garcilaso	7	1	1	5	5-9	4
16	Pirata FC	7	1	3	3	3-8	4	[1]
17	Deportivo Municipal	7	1	2	4	8-12	3	[1]
18	UTC	7	0	2	5	4-11	2

Aggregate table (Apertura + Clausura)

1	Sporting Cristal	24	13	6	5	42-22	45	Qualified for the play-off
2	Binacional (Q)	24	13	5	6	51-31	44	Qualified for the play-off
3	Alianza Lima	24	11	7	6	43-34	40
4	Sport Huancayo	24	11	7	6	34-30	40
5	Universitario de Deportes	24	11	6	7	33-30	39
6	FBC Melgar	24	10	6	8	38-30	36
7	Universidad César Vallejo	24	10	5	9	32-30	35
8	Academia Cantolao	24	8	9	7	26-27	33
9	Alianza Universidad	24	8	8	8	26-26	32
10	Ayacucho FC	24	9	5	10	32-34	32
11	Deportivo Municipal	24	8	9	7	35-32	30	[2]
12	Real Garcilaso	24	8	6	10	24-24	30
13	Carlos A. Mannucci	24	8	5	11	28-31	29
14	UTC	24	6	9	9	30-35	27
15	Unión Comercio	24	6	8	10	24-28	26
16	Universidad San Martín	24	5	9	10	21-39	24
17	Sport Boys	24	5	6	13	19-38	21	Relegation to Liga 2
18	Pirata FC	24	4	8	12	20-37	17	[2]Relegation to Liga 2

Round 8 (20-22 September 2019)

Binacional – Pirata FC

Universidad César Vallejo – Deportivo Municipal

Unión Comercio – Academia Cantolao

Sport Boys – UTC

Sport Huancayo – Universitario

Sporting Cristal – Ayacucho

Alianza Universidad – Universidad San Martín

Alianza Lima – Real Garcilaso

FBC Melgar – Carlos A. Mannucci

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[1] Pirata FC and Deportivo Municipal had two points deducted for financial irregularities.

[2] Deportivo Municipal and Pirata FC had three points deducted for financial irregularities.