National and Boca Juniors They tied this Wednesday 0-0 in the first leg of the Copa Libertadores round of 16 and left all the suspense of this series for next Wednesday at the La Bombonera stadium in Buenos Aires, where Edinson Cavani’s debut is expected in the ranks of the xeneize.
In a packed Gran Parque Central in Montevideo, the teams gave away an entertaining first half in which the Argentines took possession of the ball and the Uruguayans created the clearest scoring chances.
A shot by Juan Ignacio Ramírez that crashed against the post at minute 28 brought the eleven led by Álvaro Gutiérrez closer, while Franco Fagundez tried with a direct free kick that went above the horizontal.
The high pressure with a hard mark on the rival midfielders, the speed of the wings and the quick retreat to defend marked the game for Tricolor, who lost midfielder Diego Rodríguez after 10 minutes due to a blow to the head.
Boca Juniors handled the ball, although he was practically unable to generate options that put the rival rear guard on alert.
Jorge Almirón opted for a 4-5-1 in which Miguel Merentiel He was very alone in attack and on just two occasions he was well assisted, one by the Colombian Frank Fabra and another by the Peruvian Luis Advíncula.
In the last of these, the Uruguayan was very close to opening the score after a bad start by goalkeeper Salvador Ichazo, who in the first had drowned him very well when the number 16 tried to define one-on-one.
At the beginning of the second half, the Xeneize coach sent Exequiel Zeballos onto the field and with this change his team began to use a more offensive system.
And although the number 7 didn’t take long to generate an opportunity for his team, it was Nacional who again generated the clearest ones, first after a good counterattack led by the Colombian Daniel Bocanegra and then with a powerful shot from Yonathan Rodríguez that found a great answer from Sergio Romero.
With the match tied without goals, the coaches opted for more changes. Almirón opted for the speed of Valentín Barco and the rookie Lucas Janson, while Gutiérrez did so for the experience of Gonzalo ‘Chory’ Castro.
However, they could do little to break two defenses that were very firm and delivered the figures of the match: the Uruguayan Diego Polenta and the Argentine Nicolás Valentini.
Data sheet
0. National: Salvador Ichazo; Leandro Lozano, Daniel Bocanegra, Diego Polenta, Gabriel Báez; Diego Rodríguez (m.10, Thiago Helguera), Yonatan Rodríguez; Alfonso Trezza, Franco Fagúndez (m.80, Gonzalo Castro), Diego Zabala and Juan Ignacio Ramírez (m.71, Bruno Damiani).
Coach: Alvaro Gutierrez.
0. Boca Juniors: Sergio Romero; Marcelo Weigandt, Jorge Figal, Nicolás Valentini, Frank Fabra; Luis Advíncula (m.76, Valentín Barco), Guillermo Fernández, Alan Varela, Jorman Campuzano (m.46, Ezequiel Zeballos), Cristian Medina (m.82, Marcos Rojo) and Miguel Merentiel (m.76, Lucas Janson).
Coach: Jorge Almiron.
Referee: The Brazilian Raphael Claus. He admonished Exequiel Zeballos, Nicolás Valentini and Yonathan Rodríguez.
incidents: First leg of the round of 16 of the Copa Libertadores played at the Gran Parque Central stadium in Montevideo.
EFE
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