The Return Leg That Didn’t Disappoint.

By: Mauro | August 21st, 2008

At least for non-Independiente fans. And for those of you who still don’t have a lot of interest, you might have heard of a little player named, Juan Sebastián Verón. In any case, the bald beauty’s team won tonight and is still alive in this tournament. Independiente, on the other hand, will have to wait to add to it’s tally of international titles for at least another year. A year in which Boca could equal their title total.

Estudiantes did just about everything correctly last night. They played well, dominated possession for most of the half and had in Marcos Angeleri a man who was hell bent on winning tonight with his undisputed ownership of the right flank.

Estudiantes’ first goal came off a great play where Verón collected the ball about 5 feet from the penalty area and played a honey of a ball over the Independiente defenders to Angeleri (surprise!) who collected and crossed the ball to a wide open Gastón Fernández who knocked it home past keeper Fabián Assman. 8 minutes in, Estudiantes 1-0.

Independiente was a little more cautious and when they attacked it was with few players, too few, in fact, to cause any real danger to the Pincharata back line. But when they came out for the second half they were decidedly going to look for a the equalizer. With one sub, coach Claudio Borghi sent a message to his opponents, he was looking for the match. Defender Ricardo Moreira off, striker Darío Gandin on.

And 3 minutes in, it was Gandín who helped his side score. Off a long cross, he was able to get a head on it which made the Estudiantes defense scramble while th bal floated toward the center of the penalty area. Leonel Nuñez caught the ball perfectly and was able to score off a fantastic bicycle kick. 1-1.

At this point, el Rojo were able to dominate the match a little more and Estudiantes’ formation and possession seemed to give way to Independiente’s will and decision. Midfielder Emanuel Centurión came on for striker Federico Higuaín to secure more ball possession since this scoreline allowed Independiente to advance.

But Estudiantes had more heart in the end. With only 4 minutes before the end of regulation, Iván Moreno y Fabianesi took a free kick from outside the area lobed it over the entire penalty area to a streaking Juan Salgueiro who no one had marked. He strolled into the area and the Independiente defense was none the wiser. In fact, he could have set up a table and sipped himself a macchiato and Independiente defenders would have had no idea he was there. 2-1 to Estudiantes.

But this type of match couldn’t end without some kind of controversy. Independiente fans will tell you they were robbed while Estudiantes fans might venture to say that it was a clean tackle or that Lucas Pusineri took a dive in the penalty area but the ref didn’t bite and the match ended 2-1 to Estudiantes.

But the story does not end here my friends. Penalty kicks were necessary to decide who advances. And while everyone had no trouble knocking theirs in, Lucas Mareque tried striking it into the upper left corner of the goal and struck it a touch too high and it rebounded off the crossbar. And in the end, that was what separated these two.

I had this one going 1-1 and Independiente advancing. This is a strong side and the teams in the Argentine Primera had better keep a close eye on them.

Estudiantes wait to see who their opponent is in the next round as Arsenal still have to play the return leg in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. My money’s on Arsenal, the scoreline for return leg would have to be pretty ridiculous for Motagua to have to make the trip to Argentina again.

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.