Palestino comes out to reaffirm its advantage against Portuguesa and advance to phase 3

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Inspired with a good start, Palestinian receives the Venezuelan Portuguesa this Tuesday for the second round match of the Copa Libertadores, after having won in the first leg and scoring a goal in its debut in the National Championship, in search of advancement to the third round where it will face the winner between National Athletic from Colombia and National of Paraguay.

The Arab team led by Pablo Sánchez took advantage in the duel played in Caracas, which represented their first match of the season. Despite the lack of pace of play, the Chilean team knew how to recover by conceding an early goal and putting the overall score in their favor 2-1.

“We are very excited and looking forward to. Hopefully we can pass the key next Tuesday and get into the Libertadores group stage or the Sudamericana,” Sánchez’s assistant told the press. Leandro Martin.

Forwards Bryan Carrasco and Gonzalo Sosa were the scorers on that visit and this Saturday both attackers contributed, along with midfielder Joe Abrigo, in the 5-0 win that the Baisanos gave to Copperloa in its debut in the local tournament.

Sosa has responded quickly as a reinforcement, after having been signed from Audax Italiano where he scored 15 goals last season.

Coach Sánchez made changes for last Saturday’s duel with respect to the starting eleven that stopped in Venezuela, placing a completely different midfield, although in the second half he brought in several starters to play minutes, since they have only played two games this year.

“We had a good game in Venezuela, although the key is very very open because anything can happen, a victory is an advantage and today things turned out that way,” added Martín, after Saturday’s match.

The experienced forward will be in the Portuguesa ranks Richard Blanco 42 years old, who played in Chile with O’Higgins, and is one of the top scorers in Venezuelan soccer after scoring his goal 200 Therefore, the responsibility of defining the matches falls on him.

In that sense, assistant Martín recognized the relevance of the striker: “He is a vital player42 years old, but he plays very well and we cannot be inattentive,” he said.

The team led by Jesús Ortíz shows signs of fight, last Friday they equalized one goal with the leader of the Venezuelan league Deportivo Táchira precisely with a penalty converted by Blanco, and before the premiere in Libertadores they had beaten Caracas FC also by the domestic tournament.

Like Palestino, the coach of the llanero team reserved some players to try to reverse the score on his visit and transcend the phase in the return of the Venezuelan team to the Libertadores dispute, after 40 years.

This is the second time that both teams face each other in this competition, after the 1979 edition in which Palestino won 6-0 in Chile and 2-0 in Venezuela. Although it was played with another format, ‘Tino’ agreed to semi-finals in that opportunity.