Pablo Lavalin entered the semi-finals of the Copa Sudamericana with Melgar from Peru

Peru Melgar, a club led by ex-Olympia coach Pablo Lavalin, achieved a historic qualification to the semi-finals of the Copa América on penalties (1-3), where they will face Independiente del Valle, after Thursday’s 0-0 draw in their visit. Against the Brazilian Internacional in the second leg of the quarter-finals.

The Peruvian team, who gave up a 0-0 draw at home last week in the first leg, knew how to resist pressure from Colorado in Porto Alegre and tied again 0-0, to impose the decision on penalties, in which he was. more effective.

Melgar took advantage of Inter’s poor goal, which squandered his first three money, and advanced to the semi-finals of an international tournament for the first time.

Lavalin set a new record by becoming the first club in their country to reach the semi-finals since 2003, when Cienciano, the only Peruvian to reach that level, won South America.

Also playing in the other semi-finals are the Brazilians Atlético Guiananci and Sao Paulo.

Argentine Brian Romero, who wore the Inter shirt for the first time after arriving in the country from River Plate, showed his good record in South America, which was the champion and top scorer in 2020 with Defense and Justice, at the age of nineteen. Within seconds of the match, he starred in his first dangerous move and nearly opened the scoring, but got tangled up when it came to getting rid of the goalkeeper.

Despite the dominance of the locals in the first minutes, Perez surprised Geddes with a counterattack and forced goalkeeper Daniel to brag to prevent Melgar from scoring.

Argentine Bernardo Cuesta, the current South American top scorer with eight goals, also forced Daniel to predict several times to prevent the ball from reaching the Melgar striker.

Melgar’s counter-attacks only occasionally stopped the intense pressure from Inter, especially with Wánderson and Romero, who opened the scoring again after 20 minutes with a narrow header that Cassida saved.

At 25, Edenelson headed off a header from Wánderson’s lift, but the goal was disallowed due to offside.

The second half started with the same scenario, Internacional and Melgar Palace himself pressed on the counter-attack, and Caesida became a character by frustrating the Brazilians’ finishing touches, including a shot from Wanderson and another from Bustos.

Due to the absence of a goal despite complete control of the match and the necessity of scoring so that the classification would not be determined by penalty shootouts, Internacional coach Mano Menezes decided to give the team an attacking force with Tyson entering in. Alan Patrick’s place.

Melgar, for his part, preferred to touch the ball in an attempt to manage the tie and is more interested in penalties.

Inter’s deficit was exacerbated in the 74th minute when midfielder Gabriel was sent off for a strong tackle on Arias.

Menezes then substituted two of his attackers, including Romero, to renew his attack.

But the Peruvian team, which was limited to defending itself, took advantage of its numerical superiority in the last minutes to continue the attack and threatened Daniel’s goal several times, but time was not enough and they had to surrender to determine the classification. Penalty kicks.

– data sheet:

0. International: Daniel. Fabricio Bustos, Fitao, Gabriel Mercado, Rene; Gabriel, Edenelson, Carlos de Pena, Alan Patrick (AD 65, Tyson); Wánderson (AD 80, Pedro Henrique) and Brian Romero (AD 80, Mikael).

Fitness Trainer: Hand minis.

0. Melgar: Carlos Caeda Alejandro Ramos, Alec Deniumoster, Lionel Galliano, Paulo Reina; Horacio Orzan, Walter Tandazzo (M 59, Kenji Cabrera), Alexis Arias (M 82, Jean-Pierre Archembeu), Martin Pérez Geddes, Christian Bordachar (M 45, Luis Iberico); Bernardo Cuesta.

Fitness Trainer: Pablo Lavalin.

Penalties (1-3): Cabrera, Cuesta and Iberico scored for Melgar and Galeano. For the international only, Pedro Henrique scored goals and Edenelson, Tyson and Carlos de Pena failed.

Rule: Chilean Roberto Tobar Gabriel was expelled and blamed Reina and de Pena.

Accidents: The second leg of the Copa América quarter-final was played at the Beira Rio stadium in Porto Alegre in front of 43,191 spectators.