Estudiantes Eliminate Arsenal, a New Champion Will be Crowned.

By: Mauro | October 3rd, 2008

Estudiantes stroll into town to play defending Copa Sudamericana Champions, Arsenal de Sarandi with a little 2 goal chip on their shoulder. But Arsenal have a 1 goal chip that gives them a chance to advance. A 1-0 win for Arsenal at home should be pretty easy but this is a final type match and no one’s blinking yet.

Estudiantes’ squad played more organized and smarter football but you have to understand that this was not a very good match. The visitors did good work keeping Arsenal from invading the final quarter of the Estudiantes side of the pitch. Mostly due to some great work by Matiás Sanchez in the midfield.

The one true opportunity to score came to Estudiantes in the 24th minute. Sanchez spotted Diego Galván and slotted him the ball only to have Galán shoot it over the crossbar.

Meanwhile it took Arsenal 38 minutes to get their first dangerous attempt when Carlos Casteglione took a shot with a marker on him and failed to aim correctly.

In the second half, Arsenal took a bit more initiative and took the game to Estudiantes and Casteglione featured in another opportunity for Arsenal. Casteglione took a dangerous header that Andujar was able to bat away for the corner. Leguizamón was credited for the fine cross.

Shortly thereafter, the match ran stale. Not much happened except for the isolated counter options Estudiantes had but did not take. The only event of note in the last 15 mintues or so was the expulsion of Juan Salgueiro of Estudiantes.

The red card caused Estudiantes to defend even more staunchly, giving up the ball and the pitch to Arsenal who couldn’t create much danger or a single close opportunity.

Final Score: 0-0. Boring.

I had this match ending in a 1-1 draw. Neither team was better than the other, I got that right. Overall, the match was pretty even and not very good. Estudiantes came into to town to grind out a result, be it 0-0 or 1-1 and did just that.

Estudiantes advance to play Botafogo in the Quarter Finals. The first leg will be played at Estudiantes ground in La Plata. The second leg will take place in Rio de Janeiro at the Estadio Olimpico João Havelange.

Feel free to check the CONMEBOL website for results and information about upcoming matches and for those of you in need of a bracket to get your heads around the competition, get one here.