The desire for Polo and the sense of smell of Flores is not enough: UnoxUno of the bitter draw of the U against Junior in the Copa Libertadores

The ‘U’ did not win the game… When on the verge of 90′, with the public pulling their hair in despair because there were no shots on Junior’s goal, a Murrugarra clearance was left between the Colombians Cantillo and Peña, both heroes of the tie in Lima. The capricious ball sneaks between them and reaches the feet of Christopher Olivares. With the rush of the play, the obligation to win at home for the Copa Libertadores and the pressure of a packed stadium, ‘Zancudito’ finishes from the right and the ball passes five meters from the goal defended by Santiago Mele. There the only and last hope of adding another victory at home for the Cup disappeared.

The ‘U’ began its string of important matches in the month of May with a bitter draw at the Monumental. Now, it’s time to host Cristal in League 1, then Botafogo in the Cup and, finally, visit Cienciano also in League 1. There will not be such a demanding and important calendar throughout the year. The margin of error began to be smaller after the 1-1 against Junior. With 5 points in the table, it is, for now, second place in Group D pending what Botafogo does on Thursday in Brazil against Liga de Quito.

This is the evaluation of the team against the Colombians, line by line, how we saw Fabián Bustos’ team.

Defense: claw

History struck quickly on behalf of the Colombians. The statistics said that in the 13 previous games between Universitario against coffee teams he always received goals. At 5′, a shot from Castrillón shook the fans from their seats. Goalkeeper Britos, attentive to the other plays, could do little against the shot.

Was there responsibility for the goal? Bustos’ team paid the consequences of defending corner kicks in the zone. Nobody marked the Colombian outside the area and the 1-0 against forced the Argentine coach’s strategy to prevail no matter what.

There the line of Corzo, Riveros and Di Benedetto once again stood out, who was back in the starting team and had to face the skilled José Enamorado. Junior has an offense that scored three goals against Botafogo in Brazil and gave Liga de Quito a bad night in Barranquilla.

However, the ‘U’ defense knew how to stop this rival both on the road and at home. The kilos of experience of Carlos Bacca and the diagonals of Yimmi Chará met with the desire and tactical order of Corzo (7 of 12 duels won, according to Sofascore), the dedication and defensive anticipation of Riveros (2 clearances and 1 interception, according to Sofascore ) and the determination and discipline of Di Benedetto (2 long balls completed, according to Sofascore).

Flyer: few ideas

The only one with a passing grade in the core was the Chilean Rodrigo Ureña, rated with 7.1 points by Sofascore. Both Martín Pérez Guedes (6.5) and Jairo Concha (6.6) did not have the expected performance against Junior at the Monumental. The physical rigor of the visit prevailed and both were below their level.

Pérez Guedes looked with Andy Polo all night, but could not create dangerous chances for the defensive line. Both of his recorded crosses in the match ended in clearances. While Concha’s ideas collided with the wall imposed by Bryan Castrillón and Didier Moreno.

Ureña, on the other hand, in 80 touches had an accuracy of 82% and completed 7 of 11 long passes towards the attackers.

Attack: without forcefulness

The only moments that Universitario did not want to lose the game was when Andy Polo took the ball. The winger went out of the script with a brilliant play from his zone at 24′. He dribbled past two defenders and took a shot that hit Edison Flores’ boot to make it 1-0.

The ‘U’ did not create dozens of dangerous chances against Junior. Apart from the goal and the bad shot by Christopher Olivares towards the end of the game, there was no other clear opportunity to reverse the score. Alex Valera almost didn’t touch the ball.

The goal deficit in Universitario is increasingly noticeable. In the Cup he scored in all four games (5 goals). However, the 3-1 against Botafogo in Brazil has them with a goal difference of -1 in the table of Group D of the Copa Libertadores. With two games left, one in Lima (Botafogo) and another in Quito (LDU), it is necessary to adjust this statistic if we want to qualify for the round of 16.