Nacional Stroll Into The Next Round.

By: Mauro | April 24th, 2008

Actually, it wasn’t quite the thump, but still Nacional handled Cienciano in front of a packed house at Parque Central. Nacional dominated play via crosses into the area looking for Richard “El Chengue” Morales’ head which they found with very little problem or resistance from Cienciano defenders. Cienciano also preferred to play a more conservative approach to the match, spending lots of time in their own half. Despite Morales’ ease of finding the ball with his head, he never hit paydirt. But in the 39th minute, thanks to yet another cross won by Morales’ head, he was able to bring it down for his team mate Martin Liguera who then scored. Cienciano, spurred by the goal scored against them, attempted to keep possession of the ball but failed to do much with it.

The second half was almost all Nacional. 9 minutes in, Matias Cardaccio, with a fantastic strike, scored off a rebound that fell to him and it was 2-0 Nacional. The match was essentially over at that point but there was still over a half hour left to play. Cienciano surged in the final ten minutes and that’s when their small moment of glory came. 8 minutes from time Cristian Guevara scored off a shot that rebounded off Pablo Caballero and fooled Nacional keeper Alexis Viera. Cienciano were only one goal behind where they continued to surge and exposed themselves at the back for the inevitable. In the 90th minute, Diego Vera scored a beautiful goal after a great play between the goal scorer and Nico Bertolo and that was all she wrote.

Nacional needed just a draw to advance and Cienciano needed a miracle to win a HUGE away match. Nacional won with the authority they showed when Flamengo came to town on April the 6th.

I GUESSED THIS ONE RIGHT. For this one post, I am the man. Bow to me.

Check the CONMEBOL website for final Group 4 standings and results.