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The Cerro Porteño-Fluminense duel that will be played this Thursday in Asunción for the third date of Group A of the Copa Libertadores-2024 revives in the fans of the Paraguayan team the bitterness of two controversial eliminations against the last champion of the competition.
The clash, scheduled from 6:00 p.m. local (10:00 p.m. GMT) at the La Olla Monumental stadium, maintains Cerro Porteño’s desire for revenge against the Rio team led by Fernando Diniz.
The locals, led by the Spanish Manolo Jimenez, have marked ‘between their eyebrows’ the incredible VAR error in August 2021 that annulled a legitimate goal scored by the Argentine Mauro Boselli for Cerro Porteño due to an alleged offside position when the match was tied no goals.
Conmebol admitted the referee’s mistake, Cerro Porteño demanded the annulment of the match but the governing body of South American football reminded him that the management of the Paraguayan club signed a commitment not to protest the failures of the video arbitration.
The match, valid for the round of 16 of the 2021 Copa Libertadores, ended with a 2-0 victory for ‘Flu’.
Another memorable and controversial match dates back to 2009, which ended in a pitched battle at the Maracaná stadium in the semifinals of the Copa Sudamericana, when the Guaraní eleven had victory in their hands but the result took a dramatic turn in stoppage time with a goal that qualified the Brazilians for the final of the tournament.
Fluminense, current champion of the Libertadores, arrives in Asunción with four important casualties: its scorer John Kennedy, Kauá Elías, Arthur and Alexsander, surprisingly removed for indiscipline.
The newspaper Globo Esporte reported that “they brought women to the concentration” before the match with Vasco, played on Saturday in the Brazilian league.
If they win on Thursday, Cerro Porteño, which has three points, will remain the leader of Group A, which Fluminense currently leads with 4 points, like Colo Colo, which tied at home on Tuesday with Alianza Lima, bottom with two points
Under the orders of Uruguayan referee Esteban Ostojich, assisted in the VAR by his compatriot Leodan González, the probable lineups are the following:
Cerro Porteño: Jean Fernandez – Alan Benitez, Christian Baez, Eduardo Brock, Santiago Arzamendia – Fabrizio Peralta, Jorge Morel, Cecilio Dominguez, Wilder Viera – Juan Iturbe and Eduardo Nascimento. DT: Manolo Jimenez.
Fluminense: Fabio – Samuel Xavier, Nino, Felipe Melo, Marcelo – Martinelli, André, Ganso, Arias – Keno and German Cano. DT: Fernando Diniz.
hro/ma
