Friday, the 23rd of October 2020, 11 am local time (4 pm UTC), Alejandro Villanueva Stadium, Lima (neutral ground), 1st round of Stage 2 (Clausura), Group B, Peruvian Liga 1.
Cusco FC starting -up against Melgar. Source: Cusco FC Facebook page
Monday, the 19th of October, Stage 1 (Apertura) finished and Cusco FC lost their final match, 3-2 to Universitario and ended up on the 15th position (out of 20) in the table. A rather worrying classification before the start of the shorter Stage 2 (Clausura), which will be played in two groups of ten, only nine matches, so the weight of these games is higher. The drawing of lots regarding the composition of these groups was made on Tuesday, the 20th of October, and Cusco FC was placed in Group B and had to play their first match already on Friday, the 23rd of October, against Melgar. This match was scheduled early because Melgar will have to play in the Copa Sudamericana during the next week.
Melgar started very well and took the lead very early: Ávila crossed perfectly from the right and Vidales only pushed the ball in from short range: 0-1 (2'). Melgar seemed content with that and let Cusco coming more and more in attack, and after a dubious hand ball by Pellerano inside the area, which the referee considered as unintentional, the same Pellerano kicked Carando inside the same area and this time the referee gave a penalty, which was transformed by the same Carando: 1-1 (22'). Cusco FC continued their offensive, while Melgar were unable to respond, and the second goal came: Atoche assisted Carando, who took profit of another Pellerano's mistake and, all alone with Cáceda, sent the ball in between the goalkeeper's legs: 2-1 (28'). This time it was Cusco who laid down the pressure and Melgar started to attack again, and there were claims for a penalty inside Cusco's area at a duel between Chávez and Amoroso, but the referee was not impressed.
Danilo Carando was the man of the match as he scored a brace. Source: Cusco FC Facebook page
In the second half, there were only about 13 minutes of football. First, on a counterattack, Ramúa found a great pass to Rivera, between the two Melgar central defenders, and Rivera did not miss this opportunity, although his shot also hit the side bar: 3-1 (50'). Then, on another counterattack, Rabanal stopped Carando as a last resort and was sent off (58'). Down in ten men, Melgar were unable to come back in the game, also due to the fact that their head coach, Marcos Valencia (which actually lost his first match as Melgar's head coach), made some changes which lowered their strength, especially in attack. On the other hand, Cusco FC could have scored a lot more, but seemed more interested in preserving the result than in improving their goal difference.
Cusco: Pretel - Chávez, Paniagua, Delgado, Céspedes - Valenzuela, Atoche (Carranza 62'), Gonzales (Mimbela 75') - Rivera (Boló 87'), Ramúa (Sandoval 62') - Carando (Pósito 75'). Head coach: Carlos Ramacciotti.
Melgar: Cáceda - Reyna, Deneumostier, Pellerano, Rabanal - Míguez, Aubert (Mifflin 46') - Amoroso (Arakaki 60'), Ávila (Rasmussen 60'), Vidales (Ibáñez 71') - Arce (Tandazo 46'). Head coach: Marcos Valencia.
Referee: Víctor Carrillo.
Yellow cards: Carando 11' - Pellerano 21', Reyna 35', Míguez 80', Ibáñez 90'.
Red card: Rabanal 58'.
No comments:
Post a Comment