Two consecutive wins for Real Garcilaso in the Peruvian Clausura

Real Garcilaso succeeded in winning both matches scheduled last week in the Peruvian Clausura. The first one, in round 12, was played at home, on Inca Garcilaso de la Vega Stadium in Cusco, against Academia Cantolao, on Saturday evening, the 3rd of November.

In front of a crowd of about 1300, Real Garcilaso clearly dominated the game but was unable to score in the first half, when a goal was wrongly disallowed by the referee for a supposed offside position.

However, in the second half, the home team materialized their better play by scoring three times, by means of Rengifo (in the 51st minute), Vidales (in the 53rd) and Ramua (in the 61st), while Academia Cantolao responded late, in the 86th minute, when Duarte transformed a penalty.

Real Garcilaso line-up: Ortiz - Velasquez, Kontogiannis, Canova, Cossio - Aucca, Landauri (65 Archimbaud) - Vidales (69 Lecaros), Ramua, Santillan - Rengifo (75 Alessandrini). Head coach: Victor Reyes.

Regarding the line-up, it is noticeable that former international goalkeeper Caceda was left on the bench and Ortiz regained his position in the starting line-up rightfully; that Canova was preferred to Dulanto as centre-back, and Landauri to Archimbaud as central midfield; and that three young players were used - Velasquez, Aucca (both for the whole match) and Lecaros, which is most likely due to the number of minutes that these players have to achieve.

In the next game, in round 13, on Tuesday, 6th of November, Real Garcilaso played away in Lima against Universidad de San Martin de Porres. It was a much more difficult match, and the Cusco team had some luck by winning 3-2.

The home team started very well and took the lead early, by a wonderful shot of the Argentinian striker Ortiz in the 5th minute. Real Garcilaso equalized by means of Rengifo in the 14th minute after a tremendous error of Ynamine, San Martin's goalkeeper. Despite the overall dominance of the home side, Real Garcilaso took the lead in the 35th minute, when Ramua transformed a penalty after an unnecessary foul on him by Salas.

In the second half, Real Garcilaso extended their lead after a beautiful counterattack initiated by Perez and finalized by Archimbaud in the 67th minute. The same Ortiz scored in the 83rd minute for Universidad de San Martin and the final minutes were quite tense, but nothing else happened.

Real Garcilaso line-up: Ortiz - Arismendi, Kontogiannis, Canova, Velasquez - Archimbaud, Alvarez - Vidales (60 Perez), Ramua (80 Alessandrini), Santillan - Rengifo (71 Landauri). Head coach: Victor Reyes.

The absence of Aucca and Cossio led to some changes in the line-up, as Alvarez played in central midfield and Velasquez was curiously moved to the left side of the defense, where he clearly had some problems adapting. Archimbaud regained his place while Perez played quite well for the last half hour after a long period on the bench.

The other games in these two rounds decided much of what remained unsolved in this season of the Peruvian First Division.

First of all, apart from Sporting Cristal, which qualified for the finals, the teams qualified for the play-off semifinals are almost certainly FBC Melgar and Alianza Lima. FBC Melgar have 5 points more than Ayacucho in the Clausura table with two games remaining and are almost surely the winners of Clausura; and even if theoretically they might still be surpassed, they would qualify as the best team of the aggregate table not yet qualified, as they cannot lose their second place in the aggregate table.

Alianza Lima are third in the overall classification, below Sporting Cristal and FBC Melgar, so they would qualify to the play-off semifinals as the best team in the aggregate table, other than the winners of any tournament. However, they also still have a theoretical chance to win the Clausura. More realistically, they need 4 points in their remaining three games to be mathematically sure of the third place in the aggregate table, which is sought after by Real Garcilaso, 3 points behind Alianza Lima at this moment. However, like most teams, Real Garcilaso only has two games to play, while Alianza Lima has an extra game, against Universidad de San Martin, postponed in a previous round.

So, despite winning both games in rounds 12 and 13, Real Garcilaso could not get closer to Alianza Lima, as the defending champions also won their games, keeping the same 3 point distance.

In case they finish fourth, Real Garcilaso would play in the first stage of the 2019 Copa Libertadores. They have three points above Deportivo Municipal, apparently the main contender for this place. The team classified 5 to 8 will play in the 2019 Copa Sudamericana, and Deportivo Municipal, Universidad Tecnica de Cajamarca and Sport Huancayo are surely qualified. The 8th place is still fought over by several teams, but for now it is held by Deportivo Binacional.

The Peruvian Football Federation decided to penalize some of the teams for some financial irregularities. Sport Rosario were deducted 3 points in the Clausura, therefore reaching a deduction of a total of 7 points overall. Given their poor results and this penalty, Sport Rosario are already mathematically relegated, and so are Comerciantes Unidos, last in the overall classification. So, the fight to avoid relegation is over.

The other penalized teams were Academia Cantolao (2 points), Deportivo Municipal (1 point), Universidad Tecnica de Cajamarca (1 point) and Comerciantes Unidos (1 point).

Full results, tables and programme of the final two rounds:

Round 12 (3-5 November 2018)

Deportivo Municipal – Universidad de San Martín 3-1

Real Garcilaso – Academia Cantolao 3-1

Alianza Lima – Universitario de Deportes 2-1

Sport Boys – Sport Huancayo 2-0

Comerciantes Unidos – UTC 0-0

Sporting Cristal – Ayacucho 6-0

Sport Rosario – Binacional 0-2

FBC Melgar – Unión Comercio 1-0

Round 13 (6-8 November 2018)

Universidad de San Martín – Real Garcilaso 2-3

Universitario de Deportes – Deportivo Municipal 1-2

Academia Cantolao – Comerciantes Unidos 2-0

Binacional – Sport Boys 2-1

Ayacucho – Alianza Lima 1-2

Sport Huancayo – Sporting Cristal 1-1

Unión Comercio – Sport Rosario 4-2

UTC – FBC Melgar 3-0

Round 14 (10-12 November 2018)

Sporting Cristal – Binacional

Comerciantes Unidos – Universidad de San Martín

Real Garcilaso – Universitario de Deportes

Sport Boys – Sport Rosario

Deportivo Municipal – Ayacucho

Alianza Lima – Sport Huancayo

FBC Melgar – Academia Cantolao

UTC – Unión Comercio

Round 15 (25 November 2018)

Sport Rosario – Sporting Cristal

Sport Huancayo – Deportivo Municipal

Binacional – Alianza Lima

Unión Comercio – Sport Boys

Ayacucho – Real Garcilaso

Academia Cantolao – UTC

Universitario de Deportes – Comerciantes Unidos

Universidad de San Martín – FBC Melgar

Clausura Table

1	FBC Melgar	13	9	2	2	20-11	29	Qualified for the play-offs
2	Ayacucho FC	13	7	3	3	27-22	24
3	Alianza Lima	12	7	2	3	15-9	23
4	Real Garcilaso	13	5	5	3	25-20	20
5	Universidad de San Martín	12	6	2	4	17-15	20
6	Universitario de Deportes	13	6	2	5	17-17	20
7	Deportivo Municipal	13	6	2	5	13-15	19[1]
8	Sporting Cristal	13	5	3	5	25-14	18
9	UTC	13	4	5	4	11-9	17[2]
10	Unión Comercio	13	5	2	6	22-21	17
11	Sport Boys	13	4	3	6	16-18	15
12	Comerciantes Unidos	13	4	3	6	12-16	14[3]
13	Academia Cantolao	13	5	1	7	15-21	14[4]
14	Binacional	13	4	2	7	11-19	14
15	Sport Huancayo	13	2	7	4	16-20	13
16	Sport Rosario	13	1	2	10	9-24	2[5]

Aggregate table (Torneo de Verano + Apertura + Clausura) (on November 9)

1	Sporting Cristal (Q)	42	24	11	7	94-36	85[6]	Copa Libertadores – group stage
2	FBC Melgar (Q)	42	21	15	6	63-44	78	Copa Libertadores
3	Alianza Lima	41	20	9	12	55-42	69	Copa Libertadores
4	Real Garcilaso	42	19	9	14	65-62	66	Copa Libertadores
5	Deportivo Municipal	42	19	7	16	58-52	63[7]	Copa Sudamericana
6	U.T. Cajamarca	42	15	16	11	44-43	60[8]	Copa Sudamericana
7	Sport Huancayo	42	14	16	12	61-55	58	Copa Sudamericana
8	Binacional	42	15	11	16	44-50	56	Copa Sudamericana
9	Univ. San Martín	41	12	16	13	57-56	52
10	Universitario	42	12	15	15	51-59	51
11	Ayacucho FC	42	14	8	20	66-77	50
12	Unión Comercio	42	13	10	19	54-65	49
13	Academia Cantolao	42	13	11	18	50-61	48[9]
14	Sport Boys	42	11	14	17	51-60	47
15	Sport Rosario (R)	42	13	7	22	53-69	39[10]	Relegation to the Second Division
16	Comerciantes U. (R)	42	8	9	25	40-75	32[11]	Relegation to the Second Division

Q – Qualified for the play-offs

R – Relegated

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[1] Deportivo Municipal have been deducted 1 point for financial and economic irregularities.

[2] Universidad Técnica de Cajamarca have been deducted 1 point for financial and economic irregularities.

[3] Comerciantes Unidos have been deducted 1 point for financial and economic irregularities.

[4] Academia Cantolao have been deducted 2 points for financial and economic irregularities.

[5] Sport Rosario have been deducted 3 points for financial and economic irregularities.

[6] Sporting Cristal received 2 points bonus for winning the tournament for reserve teams.

[7] Deportivo Municipal have been deducted 1 point for financial and economic irregularities.

[8] Universidad Técnica de Cajamarca have been deducted 1 point for financial and economic irregularities.

[9] Academia Cantolao have been deducted 2 points for financial and economic irregularities.

[10] Sport Rosario have been deducted 7 points for financial and economic irregularities.

[11] Comerciantes Unidos have been deducted 1 point for financial and economic irregularities.