Copa Libertadores: Club America And Fluminese Advance After Late Games

Err, is that more of a Muay Thai technique? Anyway, Argentinos Juniors and Fluminense played in Copa Libertadores last night, at the same time as a game between Nacional and Club America. Due to the 0-0 result in that game, the tiebreakers dictated that, if Fluminense won by two goals or more, they advanced to the next round of the competition. If they won by one goal, Nacional advanced. If the game was a draw or Argentinos won, Argentinos went through.

In the 88th minute, the referee granted a controversial penalty after a clear dive by Fluminense’s Edinho. Fluminense were leading 3-2 at the time, and after star striker Fred converted the penalty, Fluminense had the two goal lead they needed to go through to the next round. Despite the fact that, if the result remained 3-2, Argentinos would not have gone to the next round of the competition, they felt the need to start a fight. You can find the video, complete with karate kicks, after the jump.

I’m going to be honest, I don’t even know where to start. This was an incredibly bizarre game across the board. Here’s the short version: Fluminense got a bogus penalty, scored it, and went through to the knockout stages of Copa Libertadores. After the final whistle, Argentinos Juniors started a brawl, in which Fluminense were willing participants. Wow.

The first half ended with Fluminense up 2-1. It was a nice score line, but they knew they needed another goal to go through. Nacional were drawing against America 0-0 at the time, a result which they held on to. That meant that Flu had to win the game by two, and after Argentinos scored in the 54th minute, that looked impossible.

Other than that, it was a poor second half, and frankly Nacional deserve to go out of the tournament based on that display. It seemed like they were simply banking on Fluminese’s 3-2 result to hold up, and, well, it didn’t. There’s really no excuse for them not going for it in Montevideo though. Disappointing.

This match might be 0-0, but it’s one of the more entertaining 0-0s you’re likely to come across. Nacional host Club America in Montevideo in a possibly-must-win-but-maybe not showdown. Here’s the deal: If Nacional draw today they require Fluminese to win by one goal (and one goal only) to come in second in their group, with Club America in first. Otherwise, they need to win here. Right now... Fluminese are up 2-1 over Argentinos Juniors, meaning that as it stands both teams playing would go through.

But that’s a dangerous game and Nacional know it - both teams are going all out attack here and although there have been few good shooting chances we have seen plenty of very close calls for each side. Nacional are bossing things, America are looking dangerous on the counterattack, and the game is pinging back and forth faster than a North London Derby. It’s pretty awesome so far - all it needs is a goal.

After getting off to a terrible start in the competition, Santos FC have rebounded in Copa Libertadores, winning their last three games to advance to the knockout stages on 11 points. However, they’ll be going through in second place thanks to a great comeback victory by Cerro Porteño against Colo-Colo.

Gerson Chacon scored a 69th minute goal for Depor to bring them back into the game and give hope of a comeback, but those hopes were quickly squashed in the 72nd minute when Danilo scored for Santos, sealing the win for his team.

What a match! Down 2-0 within fifteen minutes away from home and with their Copa Libertadores futures on the lines, Cerro Porteno have come back to earn a 3-2 win and advance to the next round. Absolutely extraordinary. They left it late, too - although they cancelled out Cristobal Jorquera’s stunning fourth minute finush before half time, by that time Colo Colo were already 2-0 ahead and seemingly on course for an easy victory. Down 2-1 at the break and with the other result in their group not going their way, things didn’t look good for Cerro, but manager Leonardo Astrada must have made the mother of all halftime speeches to get them fired up, because they played their hearts out for the rest of the match.

Jonathan Fabbro had scored the goal to take the match to 2-1, but when given the chance to level the scores he wisely opted to lay the ball off instead to onrushing defender Ivan Piris. Colo Colo were then rocked by an injury crisis which saw substitute Jose Fuenzalida stretchered off the pitch, but for forty minutes stubbornly defended their goal, refusing to let Cerro in. Admittedly, the visitors shot themselves in the foot with their finishing from time to time, but they were rescued very very late by Fabbro, who guided home a beautiful free kick in the 87th minute to send Cerro through to the next stage at Colo Colo’s expense. The drama didn’t end there, though, as the hosts came within inches of levelling the scores in added time. It wasn’t to be, however, and the few dozen away supporters from Paraguay were left celebrating in front of a well and truly dejected home crowd

I don’t think that was exactly what Colo Colo manager Américo Gallego had in mind when he made a double switch eight minutes into the second half. One of his subsitutes, Jose Fuenzalida, has just been stretchered off the pitch at the Estadio Monumental David Arellano, which means that Gallego will have to go to his bench again, leaving him with no more options for the rest of the match as his time tries to contain a suddenly resurgent Cerro Porteno side. Fuenzalida, who appears to have a hamstring problem of some sort, has been replaced by defender Alvaro Ormeno.

To make life even scarier for the home side, more of their players are going down with knocks - they’re being urged to play on because there’s nobody left to replace them with. Rough. Also, Cerro have equalised (I probably should have mentioned that earlier), first half goalscorer Jonathan Fabbro laying off a lovely pass to an onrushing Ivan Pires to absolutely crash the ball past Francisco Pietro to make it 2-2. The visitors still need a goal if they want to qualify, however - although they’ve come close a couple of times since.

If you thought we were going to get some drama with the early games in Copa Libertadores, sorry! Neymar is schooling folks en route to a likely Santos FC win, while it took a few seconds for Colo-Colo to go up on Cerro Porteño in the other game. As it stands, Colo-Colo will qualify for the knockout stages in first place while Santos will qualify in second.

Neymar scored the first goal of the game just four minutes in, and despite the fact that it took a deflection off a defender before going in, I’m sure Neymar would be quick to inform you that it was a great goal and that Neymar is the greatest footballer ever. The second goal was considerably more impressive, as Santos’s star attacking right back Jonathan hit an unbelievable top shelf goal from a narrow angle, 15 yards away from goal. Why he didn’t go to Europe when he left Cruzeiro is anyone’s guess.

If results hold, Once Caldas will be advancing to the second round of Copa Libertadores, and they’ll likely do it with the 16th seed, setting up a match with Cruzeiro in the first knockout round. They currently lead Universidad San Martin, and if the current Group 1 results hold, they’ll be advancing in second place with seven points.

The Once Caldas goal came from Colombian international striker Wason Renteria, who has been in spectacular form for them since joining the club. In the 16th minute, he received a ball 20 yards from goal with his back to the goal, made a fantastic turn, and hit an unstoppable left footed shot into the back of the net. His shot was extremely precise, hitting the inside of the post, giving Universidad San Martin goalkeeper Ricardo Farro no chance.

It’s been smooth sailing so far at home for Libertad, and it appears as if they’re going to send San Luis out of the competition while going through in first place. It’s been a tough Copa Libertadores and domestic campaign for San Luis, and it appears as if their continental trip is about to end in anti-climactic fashion.

Jorge Gonzalez put the hosts up early, just ten minutes into the game, but San Luis goalkeeper Cesar Lozano deserves a good piece of the blame for the goal. Gonzalez hit a nice, curling free kick from about 25 yards out, but Lozano appeared to get in front of it to make a stop. He got his hands to the ball, but was unable to tip it away or catch it, instead deflecting the ball into the net.The second goal was scored by Nicolas Pavlovich, the man who dominated them in their first meeting of the competition in Mexico.

A red card early in the second half in Bolivia turned the match around for Jorge Wilstermann and two late goals saw them earn their first victory of their CCL campaign against Jaguares de Chiapas. However, with results elsewhere in the group, a loss wasn’t enough to keep Jaguares from qualifying in second place behind Internacional - although they’re probably going to be one of the lowest seeded teams remaining in the competition.

The first half saw the hosts down early to a goal from Francisco Torres and generally looking thoroughly incapable of troubling the Jaguares goal, but in the 50th minute Julio Frias found himself in a verbal confrontation with Wilstermann goalkeeper Mauro Machardo and somehow earned himself a straight red card for abusive language. Playing against ten men, Wilstermann suddenly looked much improved (surprise!), and it wasn’t any sort of shock when they leveled after fine work from Nicolas Torres saw the midfielder skip into the box and chip a pretty cross onto the head of Rogelio Lima to finish from close range.

Internacional have eliminated Emelec and taken first place in Group 6 of the 2011 Copa Libertadores, fighting to a 2-0 win, with both goals coming in the second half after a lackluster first half. Emelec appeared to give all that they had in an attempt to find a goal throughout the first 50 minutes of the match, at which point, fatigue began to set in. Inter pounced on their tired prey, getting a 51st minute goal from Rafael Sobis and an 84th minute goal from Leandro Damiao.

The first goal was controversial, as Emelec appeared to have caught Rafael Sobis with their offside trap, but replays showed that the Internacional striker was onside by the very slimmest of margins. When he scored with a close-range header, the Beira-Rio went ballistic, but the team did not celebrate, looking as if it wasn’t worth celebrating the minimum acceptable result. The team was a little more enthusiastic when Leandro Damiao scored the team’s second, a low shot from the edge of the penalty area.

The group stage of the Copa Libertadores is coming to a close and nearly every team is still in contention to qualify for the knockout stages. That includes both Libertad and San Luis, who will square off on Tuesday evening in Asuncion, Paraguay in the final group match. Libertad is already through to the knockout stages, but San Luis is just one point behind Universidad San Martin so they can get through to the knockout stages at well.

The issue for San Luis getting through will be their likely need to get three points, not just a draw on the road. To manage three points they will need a stout defense, something that is a challenge against the talented Libertad side. As Nicolas Rosano of SB Nation’s Mexican futbol blog FMF State of Mind points out, Libertad has a lot of dangerous attackers that San Luis will have to deal with.

The final week of the Copa Libertadores group stages is a huge one, with four more groups being decided this week. Only two teams out of the 16 playing over the next two days have been eliminated, while only one has already sealed qualification for the knockout stages.

Internacional Vs. Emelec