El Cristal cup cup and competitive: draw at the Maracana to survive the Cup and qualify for the South American Cup | CHRONICLE

May all celestial proudly wear the plate of the most cupbearers. Last night Sporting Cristal made it clear in the same Maracana. He stood up to Fluminense and put the Brazilians in check. Unfortunately, the 1-1 was only enough to advance to the Copa Sudamericana playoffs.

It was a discard match for both and that’s how the team from Rim came out to play. He stood up knowing that only victory would take him to the round of 16 of the contest. And they competed for it, despite seeing themselves with the score against just in the 22nd minute.

With a great Ignácio at the back -one of the best defenders in the tournament-, with the confidence of Solís, with Yotún bringing out his experience, a daring Grimaldo and a timely Brenner Marlos for the equalizing goal at 37, the light blues they made the ‘Flu’ end up asking for the time because the Peruvians were always closer to the winning goal.

But it was a tie that makes Cristal the only Peruvian team in the Copa Libertadores that is still in competition. It will be his turn to play the South American playoffs and he hopes to improve what he did in the 2021 edition, when also coming from the Cup they entered the second tournament and reached the quarterfinals. In addition, of course, it is improving what was seen with Melgar last year, who reached the semifinals.

Thus, the rimenses continue in the race on a path that began on February 21, with Phase 2 of the Libertadores. They beat Nacional from Paraguay and then Arsenal from Argentina to get into the group stage. Already in this instance they competed in each match against rivals such as Fluminense, River and The Strongest, who they won both of their games.

Eight points to continue in the South American, where they will face one of the teams that is in second place in their groups in the playoff round, prior to the round of 16.

And the consolation prize also translates into 500 thousand dollars for their coffers. The Rimenses already have a total of 5.2 million dollars this season, not bad for a team that now lives a different economic reality.

They are still in the international race and are second in the accumulated table of League 1. He is the Cristal we know, always fighting on every front that comes his way.

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