Great players demonstrate their condition in moments of tension. And the great goal of Edinson Cavani, a free kick that hit the corner of Wilson Quiñónez, was a free sample of the Uruguayan’s talent. In short, the justification of the dominance that he had shown Boca, even without so much clarity. At that point, Sports Trinidadian He held on as best he could and had a man less from five minutes into the second half. The blue and gold victory in Asunción and the defeat of Fortaleza in Bolivia left him facing a final, on Wednesday in Bombonera. It will be a decisive head-to-head against the Brazilians for their aspirations of directly reaching the round of 16 of the Sudamericana..
Boca did not have a great volume of play, they failed in the rival area and ended up losing in the first half due to their deficiencies in the setback. Trinidense complicated it with its projections from the right and long balls, the last one when the initial forty-five minutes were up and led to the goal of Brian Andrada from Mendoza.
There was a controversial play, a handball by Axel Cañete that the Xeneizes footballers claimed. The play was reviewed by the VAR, but it supported the decision of Chilean Cristian Garay. When Lautaro Blanco hooked, the Paraguayan defender threatened to touch the ball with his right hand, but he pulled back in time, not preventing the Rosario full-back from sending the cross that Miguel Merentiel and Edinson Cavani did not take advantage of.
With possession as the main argument and accumulation of passes, Boca tried to surprise from the outside with the escalations of Blanco and Luis Advíncula. However, it lacked a greater associative flow in the middle. Pol Fernández, Cristian Medina and Equi Fernández failed to give it the necessary dynamic. And Merentiel got frustrated because he had to go down to search, he lost presence in the area and Cavani was left without company.
In this context, Trinidense was more effective, hitting the only shot on goal. Boca prowled, worrying his rival every time he accelerated, but he failed to hurt Wilson Quiñónez. With two set pieces taken by Kevin Zenón, a free kick and a corner, it was close. However, Cavani made a bad decision.
Trinidense played long and found a very large gap between Pol Fernández and the center backs. Fernando Romero almost scored that way, who got rid of Cristian Lema’s mark, but defined it wide. A while before, from the side, Pedro Delvalle could not resolve the siege of Nicolás Figal; His shot missed near Sergio Romero’s right post.
Until at the end of the first stage, Quiñónez went long again, Fernando Romero combed with Lema leaving late and Andrada was in front of the goal, pursued by Pol Fernández and Blanco. The Mendoza defined against Chiquito, who he cushioned with his right leg, but could not avoid the Paraguayans’ shout.
Boca seemed stunned at the start of the second half, when Lema made a mistake and Romero blocked Delvalle in one-on-one. However, the match put him in a very favorable situation. Andrada, who had been cautioned for taking off his shirt when he scored the goal, grabbed Equi Fernández’s body and shirt, a tactical foul that merited a second yellow card. Garay did not hesitate and Trinidense was left with ten.
Diego Martínez reacted quickly. He took out a midfielder, Pol Fernández, and opted for a striker, Luca Langoni. The Paraguayans took refuge behind and could no longer balance the game. They chose to maintain order, try to cut and remove the danger from the Quiñónez area.
In this context, Zenón grew up, showing the way with his category. And from a play that the Corrientes player put together, came a great cross from Blanco and a scoring header from Figal.
What followed was absolute dominance by Boca. The VAR intervened again due to an error by Garay, who saw Quiñónez penalize Langoni. The Chilean only needed to watch a replay to realize that the goalkeeper had gotten to the ball first.
Everything was from Boca. And around the hour mark, Luis De La Cruz elbowed Merentiel. Garay took charge of the infraction and Cavani scored a goal that, in the future, could be worth the classification.