Copa Libertadores scores: Santos Laguna earn a point, Club Leon struggle and La U win away

Copa Libertadores had a full slate of games on Tuesday night and none of them disappointed, though Velez Sarsfield and Club Leon fans will certainly be less than thrilled that their clubs couldn’t do better away from home.

This game continued the trend of home teams winning all of their games in Group 5, though that streak ended later in the night. The stars of the show in this match were Defensor’s young attacking midfielders, Felipe Gedoz and Giorgian De Arrascaeta. Gedoz was the scorer on both goals, while De Arrascaeta terrorized the Cruzeiro defense all night and assisted the second. This game also featured a badly missed penalty by Cruzeiro’s Dagoberto.

This was Group 5’s first road win, and La U will like their chances of qualifying after pulling it off. They actually went behind at the beginning of the game, with Victor Ferreira scoring the opener for the hosts, but Ramon Fernandez equalized before halftime. La U were well on top throughout the second half, but didn’t find the winner until the 76th minute when Enzo Gutierrez nodded in a corner that was allowed to hit the ground before it fell to him.

Velez are undoubtedly a better team than The Strongest, but they had a problem with the altitude, as most teams do in La Paz. They were winded pretty early in the second half and were taken apart by Pablo Escobar, who scored a penalty for the opener and a follow-up from open play in the 77th minute while Velez were gasping for air.

There’s no such thing as a disappointing away point in Copa Libertadores, and Santos will feel like favorites in Group 8 after pulling one out in Venezuela. Oribe Peralta put Santos up in the 63rd minute, finishing off a cross by Javier Orozco at the end of a gorgeous direct move. But Manuel Artaega snatched two points from them with a 72nd minute goal, scored on a clean-up job off a cross that Oswaldo Sanchez tried to bat away.

Nacional went up 2-0 early in this one and appeared primed to pull off a road upset, but Daniel Bocanegra stunned the visitors with two late goals. Atletico Nacional played the entirety of this game with 10 men thanks to the referee’s decision to send off Alejandro Bernal for a dangerous challenge just 20 seconds into the game. Nacional capitalized through Carlos De Pena and Santiago Garcia in the first 20 minutes, but fell apart late.

Bocanegra’s first came in the 71st minute, with a towering header off a corner. The equalizer came in the 2nd minute of stoppage time, and it was unlucky on the Uruguayans. Bocanegra took a shot from 20 yards that deflected off a defender, sending it high up into the air before dropping down perfectly into the goal.

Leon will have some serious work to do in the second half of the group stage provided that Flamengo beat Bolivar at home as expected later in the week. Carlos Peña scored a spectacular goal off one of his signature surging runs into the box, but it came sandwiched between goals by the man of the match, Emelec’s Luis Escalada. The Ecuadorians now sit top of Group 7.