The VAR saves a desperate Junior in Barranquilla: bitter draw with Universitario in Libertadores

The opportunity was on the table, if the Junior from Barranquilla won at home against Universitario de Perú, it became the sole leader of group D of the Libertadores Cupbut the 'shark' drowned in a glass of water and could not overcome the 1-1 draw against a team that was solid in defense and dangerous in attack.

The team of Arturo Reyes could not take advantage of the home field in the stadium Metropolitan Roberto Melendez to advance to the next round, overcome a rival who is causing a surprise and a bang in eternal glory.

Junior He couldn't find the paths to the rival goal, in the first minutes he seemed imprecise and that game and image that he showed in Brazil seemed like a mirage, he couldn't find the ball and the rival goal looked far away.

Brayan Ceballos He announced something in the 19th minute, but the post denied him the opportunity to score. The 'sharks' received a bucket of cold water in the 22nd minute after Aldo Cardozo's goal that gave the Peruvians a victory in Colombia after the aerial failures shown by the home team.

Was a Junior blurred, without game ideas, imprecise and with very few scoring opportunities generated. However, a piece of genius by José Enamorado opened the Peruvians' defensive lock.

The midfielder leaked a great ball into space to Carlos Baccawho unmarked himself and dove into the void, avoiding the offside, the forward dribbled past the rival goalkeeper and assisted Deiber Caicedo that he just had to push her.

There was some suspense in the goal, after the ball hit the post and went in. The central referee took his ear to listen to the VAR for a possible offside. Bacca, but the review was closed and the goal was validated for the partial 1-1.

It seemed that Junior's mental energy was going to be key to taking the victory in the complement, in which he started with everything. Deiber Caicedo, in a very distant free kick, surprised and took a right hand that crashed into the post. Minutes later they disallowed Bacca's goal due to a clear offside that did not have any discussion.

Yimmi Chará He did not show the good performance of other nights and was seen blocked and with poor aim. The 33-year-old player had in his boots the goal that gave the Barranquilla team three points, but on both occasions he sent it to the clouds.

After that approach there was the feeling that another goal was going to fall, but the red and white team did not accelerate and their rival became strong in defense and came closer to victory. In '71, Alex Valera saw ahead of Scrum and took a powerful shot from more than 35 meters, but the horizontal saved the local team.

The 'sharks' fans got a scare in the final stretch of the match. Alex Varela scored 1-2 in favor of the Peruvians who were celebrating the away victory that put them as leaders of the group, but the VAR called the referee who decided to annul the goal due to a somewhat dubious handball by the forward.

The 1-1 scoreline was won at the Metropolitano and Junior de Barranquilla missed the mark of being the sole leader of their area in the Copa Libertadores. Now they must focus on the Colombian League, facing Envigado, Millonarios and Once Caldas before hosting Liga de Quito on April 23.

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