Party at ONE. Infinitely simpler than anyone could have imagined, Estudiantes finished off Fortaleza with an unappealable 3-0 and secured a privileged place in the quarterfinals of the Libertadores, where they will now have to visit Atlético Paranaense in Curitiba. With two very nice headed goals from Manuel Castro and the rest from Franco Zapiola, the Lion of the Russian regained his memory, He played applying the recipe that works best for him and strengthened his self-esteem in a phenomenal way.
The celebration of the white-haired fan was such that he did not stop encouraging and cheering his players during the 90 minutes, being an explosion with the final whistle of the referee that made the pundits delirious. The only headache for Pincha was losing due to injury to Mauro Boselli, who was replaced in the last seconds of the chapter by Franco Zapiola.
Before a packed and roaring stadium, Estudiantes, fully aware that they had to drastically change the image that they had been delivering in their last presentations, went out to play driven by the need to go in search of the great goal of getting among the eight best in the continent. The Boselli-Díaz duo quickly showed that they wanted a shout out as soon as possible and two minutes later it was noticed in the Brazilian area.
Fortaleza did not back down and exerted high pressure that led to a dizzying pace down the midfield strip. Five minutes later, the Argentine Silvio Romero also decisively stepped on Mariano Andújar’s area.
The first real danger situation was carried out by Agustín Rogel with a header that went near the left post.
Immediately, the tremendous howl of the crowd came, when Rogel cut as a defender, went on the attackthrew a barbaric center and Manuel Castro, with a header, gave the ball the ideal trajectory so that goalkeeper Marcelo Boeck could do nothing.
The first quarter of an hour already had many seasonings: Estudiantes won, there were some frictions and the public made itself felt.
The Brazilians reacted with a shot from outside the area where Andújar did not have the best response and the ball bounced hard off the crossbar.
The goal was good for Estudiantes and much more the correct expulsion, at the request of the VAR, of the midfielder Pikachu, after a hard ironing of Boselli in one of his ankles.
The VAR was once again the protagonist and this time it annulled a red-and-white goal: the referee Ostojich invalidated the goal that the Uruguayan Rogel had converted as a “fisherman” in the small area due to an offside by Noguera.
Throughout that stretch, the León del Ruso was more than its rival. By character and decision to attack, it was logical that he was up on the scoreboard.
The final ten minutes of the first chapter were more even. Students, relieved by the advantage they had achieved, lowered the intensity of their offensive search a bit and Fortaleza tried, without success, to be more dangerous in the last meters of the field.
In the dawn of complement Students dealt a lethal blow to their Brazilian guest. Center from the left by Emmanuel Más and another impeccable scoring header by Manuel Castro to put the story 2-0.
From then on, with such an advantage and Fortaleza with ten men, Ruso Zielinski’s team managed the pace intelligently and tried to better manage possession of the ball.
The third goal, that of Franco Zapiola, decreed the end of the uncertainty. At 12 minutes into the complement all the Estudiantes fans knew that they had in their pocket the long-awaited pass to the quarterfinals.
Fortaleza, who never showed much, fell into despair and bared her utter helplessness. The final half hour set up the ideal stage for the red-haired people to sing and enjoy themselves to the fullest.
With the series resolved, Students found the best mood of recent weeks. He arrived at the match feeling the pressure not to fail and much earlier than he imagined, he felt proud of the task accomplished.
The match followed an unattractive course while some did the math to see whether or not they could have the pleasure of accompanying the León del Ruso on their trip to Curitiba, the home of Atlético Paranaense, their next tough rival.
The final minutes served the Russian to make all the changes that seemed appropriate and for the fans to applaud loudly each one of those who were leaving the field.
Photo // Dolores Ripoll
Atletico Paranaense, the rival
Atlético Paranaense from Brazil rescued an agonizing 1-1 draw last night and advanced to the quarterfinals of the Copa Libertadores, at the expense of a Libertad from Paraguay who made enough merits to prevail in the revenge match played in Asunción.
At the Defensores del Chaco stadium, the visiting team celebrated the anguished qualification for the next round, with a goal in additional time from Rómulo. In this way, it was installed in the quarterfinals and will be a rival of Estudiantes in that instance.
El Pincha joined Vélez Sarsfield and Talleres, from Córdoba, who will face each other, as the only three Argentines qualified for the quarterfinals.
SYNTHESIS
Students: Mariano Andujar; Leonardo Godoy, Agustín Rogel, Luciano Lollo, Fabián Noguera and Emmanuel Mas; Fernando Zuqui, Jorge Rodríguez and Manuel Castro; Leandro Diaz and Mauro Boselli. DT: Ricardo Zielinski.
Fortaleza: Marcelo Boeck; Anthony Landazuri, Marcelo and Titi; Yago Pikachu, Joseph Welison, Ronald and Juninho Capixaba; Lucas Lima, Silvio Rosemary and Moses. DT: John Paul Vojvoda.
Goal in the first half: 9 minutes Manuel Castro (L).
Goals in the second half: 1 minute Manuel Castro (E) and 11 minutes Franco Zapiola (E).
Warned: Zuqui (E). Capixaba, Zuqui, Ze Wellison, Moisés and Romarinho (F).
Incidence in the first half: 21 minutes sent off Pikachu (F).
Change in the first half: 45+4 minutes Franco Zapiola for Boselli (L).
Changes in the second half: 7 minutes Tonald for Hercules (F) and Vargas for Lima (F), 16 minutes Torres for Moses (F) and Romarinho for Romero (F), 33 minutes Benjamin Rollheiser for Zuqui (E), Pablo Piatti for Castro (E) and Jussa for Ze Wellison (F) and 38 minutes Jorge Morel for Rodriguez (E) and Mateo Pellegrino for Diaz (E).
Referee: They were Ostojich (Uruguay)
WAS: Juan Lara (Chile).
Basketball court: Students.
THE FINAL COMMENT FROM ONE
