Corinthians suffered on Wednesday (26) more than expected before the Universidad Central, Venezuela, but got a 3-2 win, with two goals from Yuri Alberto, and advanced to the next stage of Libertadores, the last before winning a place in the group stage.
In the first leg, the two teams tied 1-1. Until the 44 minutes of the second half of the match in Itaquera, the draw also persisted on the scoreboard. The owners of the house got ahead twice in the scorer, but gave goals a few minutes after swinging the nets.
In the initial stage, Yuri Alberto opened the scoring after 3 minutes, but Manuel Cuesta drew at 6. Near the end of the first 45 minutes, Bidu again put the mastermind, but Martínez equalized again, in the additions.
The goals of the Venezuelans were born after important errors of athletes of the alvinegro team. In the first, Bidu failed to mark a crossed ball on his back. In the second, Hugo Souza was bad for the goal after a corner and left his goal free for Martinez to make a head.
“We make our lives difficult, much for our fault,” acknowledged the Corinthians goalkeeper. “It was very difficult, everyone wants to compete against us. We have to be more patient, we can not play this way all the games, we cannot attack all the time, we have to control the game,” added striker Memphis Depay.
The risk of being eliminated at home made Corinthians act tensely after the break, with few clear chances of goal.
When the penalties were already on the horizon, however, Yuri Alberto appeared to complete a move started by himself in midfield and decree the victory, to secure the Corinthians party.
The suffocation against the Venezuelans was not for lack of support from their fans. The Corinthians Arena received an audience of 44,643 paying, completing its 25th consecutive game with at least 40,000 people in the Alvinegro team games as principal.
Following the competition, Corinthians will face the winner of the duel between Barcelona de Guayaquil and El Nacional.
