Outplayed, Outmuscled, Outmanned

In a span of 72 hours Nacional was left out of both the Copa Libertadores and the domestic tournament. Peñarol seemed doomed just two weeks ago, but now they are even with River Plate atop the standings. The Carbonero’s 4-2 win against Nacional in the 183rd edition of this rivalry put them closer to ending that dryspell. If there was any indication as to how important this game was to the Carbonero, one need to go no further than expression on Mario Saralegui’s face as soon as the final whistle blew.

Peñarol did everything that they had to do in this match to show their superiority on the pitch. They owned the pace, they were much stronger in their midfield and everywhere else at the Estadio Centenario. Ruben Olivera was undoubtedly the man of the match as his ability to break down a suspect Nacional defense. Antonio Pacheco opened the scoring for Peñarol in the fifth minute off a brilliant free kick. Olivera, who is currently on loan from Juventus began to shine and justified his return to Uruguay when in the 20th minute he made a brilliant individual play to double the advantage for the carboneros.

Yet despite this stretch Nacional were able to claw back and get closer to equalizing when Bruno Fornaroli made it 2-1 in the 43rd, but Carlos Bueno 3-1 just a couple of minutes later. Nacional would then go to the dressing room with a one-goal deficit after Nicolás Bertolo made it 3-2. This gave the Tricolor reason be optimistic for the second half.

That optimism would be evaporated quickly.

Olivera would score coming out of the dressing room to change the mentality of the game. While Peñarol controlled the pace of the game as well as possession, Nacional lost their heads- and players as well. In a span of 12 minutes Adrián Romero, Mathías Cardaccio, and Bruno Fornaroli were sent off as they all fouled Carlos Bueno. (Charlie Good) was bad for Nacional as he caused nightmares for the entire team. Bueno was a factor on his end of the pitch as well as on the attack. Those three red cards were the death sentence for Nacional as Peñarol now share the lead with River Plate with two weeks left in the Uruguayan Clausura. El Bolso did get lucky and not have a fourth player sent off, causing a premature end to the match.

For Nacional is was the conclusion of a week that saw their dreams of 1988 come to life quickly get snatched from them. Meanwhile, for their arch-rivals, it was a turnaround that saw them two weeks ago literally out of the title race.

Remaining Matches

River Plate
@Wanderers
vs. Juventud

Peñarol
@ Tacuarembó
vs. Rampla Juniors




Tags: Team News