Suffering from altitude sickness, Sporting Cristal ended their unbeaten run with a 4-1 defeat against Cusco FC at the Inca Garcilaso Stadium in Cusco. The Light Blues finished 10th when Lutiger was sent off (83rd) and lost first place in the Clausura tournament.
The desire to continue the fight South American Cup Reason enough for the team led by “Puchito” Flores to compete determinedly and keep the three points at home. In the first few minutes the home team gave their best and Barreto shocked the opponent’s goal with a shot from outside the penalty area. In the 10th minute, Olivares was fouled in the penalty area, but after checking by VAR, Joel Alarcon He indicated that there was nothing. In the 19th minute, after a great cross from the Cusqueños, Olivares made it possible for “Felucho” Rodríguez, who made it 1-0 with good defense.
At the start of the added time, Da Silva was close to equalizing, but the post prevented the goal. Then a header from Ugarriza was well parried by “Kangaroo” Ferreyra. The Light Blues concentrated on the attack, but until the 72nd minute left space open that the local team did not know how to exploit. As much as Sporting Cristal tried to attack from the wings, none of their attempts failed to make an impact in their rivals’ territory. “Felucho” enabled Abdiel Ayarza to make it 2-0 (73′) after a mistake at the start. Tiago Nunes, knowing there were still minutes left, told his players to calm down.
The Rimenses’ advance led to Yoshimar Yotún scoring a goal in another game, equalizing the final point (81′), but the sending off of Rafael Lutiger a few minutes later changed the plans for the comeback. In the 91st minute, Da Silva scored a good header and almost equalized, and in the final minutes the Imperials sealed the victory with great goals from James Morales (93′) and Gerson Barreto (97′).
With this result, Sporting Cristal remained at 30 points and missed the chance to climb to the top of the table of the 2023 Clausura tournament, reducing its chances of continuing to fight for the national title with three days to go. Final. Among the participants fighting for first place in the Clausura, Universitario was undoubtedly the winner that day. The Creams added three golden points in Trujillo by beating Universidad César Vallejo, while Alianza Lima and Melgar missed their chances by sharing the points in Matute.
Those Luis ‘Puchito’ FloresFor their part, they climbed to sixth place overall with 49 units and dream of qualifying for the Copa Sudamericana 2024. Everything will be determined in the final dates of the tournament, which is very close.