Estudiantes Power Through Botafogo to the Semis, the Brazilian Side Falls Apart.

By: Mauro | November 6th, 2008

On an very rainy night, Estudiantes secured themselves a spot in the Semi-Finals over a completely unrecognizable Botafogo squad whose composure fell to pieces in the second half allowing the Argentine side to play ten men behind the ball and ride out the storm or attacks from the Brazilians.

In the first half Estudiantes managed to keep possession for most of the half and showed to be a highly efficient, strategic side when necessary. This thinking doesn’t keep Estudiantes from being a physical side. The team earned themselves five yellows, four in the 2nd half.

But the match was simplified for Estudiantes when in the 3rd minute, Diego Galván placed a wonderful ball into the penalty area where Marcos Angeleri streaked in beating Botafogo defender Triguinho and got off a deceiving bouncing, crossing shot to the right of the keeper. From the get-go, the match was set up for Los Pincharratas. 1-0 to Estudiantes, seemingly out of the gates. Also, Angeleri’s case for a national team call up gets stronger with this performance, keep in mind, he’s a defender.

Botafogo fans were stunned, as was the coaching staff and players and all that was heard for a time was the 1,000 or so Estudiantes fans that made the trip to Rio de Janeiro.

After the goal, Estudiantes gave up terrain and the ball to the Brazilian side and they had a few close opportunities to score but Carlos Alberto had a glancing header poorly finished and Lucio Flavio had a shot from just outside the penalty area, go just wide. With this type of finishing and the fact that they needed four goals to continue in this competition, the match was agonizing.

And then, in the 34th minute, the match was effectively over. Well, not the match, I should say the series. Because after Juan Salgueiro’s goal, everyone in the stadium pretty much knew who was going to be in the Semi-Finals.

Salgueiro received the ball at the half circle of Botafogo’s penalty area, holding off a defender, he took a hard shot and buried it past keeper Renan. Series over. Estudiantes up, 2-0. The most horrible fact at this point was that Botafogo needed to score four goals to advance directly. Three to force penalties.

Estudiantes played wide in the midfield, and played the fullbacks deep into Botafogo territory, something that allowed them to monopolize the ball for stretches of the first half and cause a relative amount of desperation for Botafogo as their players ran and ran after the ball and exhausted themselves trying to get at it.

Given this, anytime Botafogo got the ball, they were relegated to launching cross after cross into the penalty area, sort of like a hail mary over and over, where they were met by Estudiantes defenders Cristian Cellay and Leandro Desábato. The duo formed an impenetrable wall that the Brazilians crashed in to time and again.

In the second half, the Brazilians were as convinced as ever that they were going to make a game of this since they made two offensive substitutions, Luciano Almeida for Thiaguinho and Lucas Silva for Triguinho. Coupled with the fact that Estudiantes put the match into cruise control and allowed Botafogo back into the fray by playing in their own half of the field.

In the 57th minute, Estudiantes were called for a penalty and it was Botafogo captain, Lucio Flavio who exchanged the call for a goal. 2-1 to Estudiantes, Botafogo get one back.

In the 65th minute, Andre Luís pulls his team level off a corner kick that was poorly defended by Estudiantes. 2-2 and it seemed we had a match. But the alarms didn’t sound very loudly but only because of what happened three minutes later.

In the 68th minute, the inconceivable happened. Frustrated with what was happening on the pitch, Andre Luís, who already had a yellow card, saw that referee Carlos Chandia was going to caution Carlos Alberto, lost his mind and took the card from the ref’s hand. Chandia punished him with a red card for the offense. Red card to Botafogo.

After that, Estudiantes was able to get the ball a bit more, holding off more unorganized Brazilian assaults, and able to be a little more dangerous on the counter where Mauro Boselli and Marcos Angeleri seemed to break free on a few occasions to stretch the lead for their sides but were unsuccessful.

Final Score: 2-2. Estudiantes advance.

I had this match going 2-1 to Botafogo, I was wrong but I did call the number of goals Botafogo had and I knew their defense wouldn’t hold Estudiantes.

Estudiantes face Argentinos Juniors, who blanked Palmeiras yet again in a 2-0 win, in the Semi-Finals, ensuring that at least one of the teams in the final will be from Argentina.

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 an updated one here.