Estudiantes beats Nacional, advances to round-of-16
Buenos Aires, May 25 (IANS) Argentina’s Club Estudiantes de La Plata beat Uruguay’s Nacional 3-1 on the last match day of Group F and advanced to the round-of-16 of the Copa Libertadores.
With two goals from penalties scored by Colombian Juan Otero and the other goal from Lucas Melano, Estudiantes on Thursday sealed its victory over Nacional, which scored only one goal thanks to Matias Zunino, reports Efe.
Following this match, both teams finished the group stage with 8 points but Estudiantes qualified for the next round due to a better goal difference.
Estudiantes, four-time champion of the Copa Libertadores (1968, 1969, 1970 and 2009), was led by interim coach Leandro Benitez.
Eliminated from the Copa Libertadores, Nacional got a ticket to the smaller Copa Sudamericana competition instead.
Nacional’s Zunino opened the scoring.
Estudiantes’ opportunity to equalize came when the Paraguayan referee gave a penalty to the Argentinian team due to a handball. Otero scored from the penalty, followed by a goal from Melano minutes after.
During the last minutes of the game, the Argentinian team was awarded another penalty, which Otero again scored to secure the win, eliminating the Uruguayan team from the Copa Libertadores.