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This Thursday, Sporting Cristal achieved an important victory (5-0) against Binacional, and is the current leader of the Clausura Tournament 2023 of the Liga 1 Betsson. The Rimense squad went out with their best players and easily overcame the 'Powerful of the South', with a great performance by Gerald Távara, who was the standout player of the match scoring a brace. After that, Tiago Nunes, the DT of the celestial team, highlighted the level of his players and pointed out that the tight schedule has taken a toll on them, with Brenner Marlos being one of the most affected players in the squad.
"Some players are feeling the sequence of matches more. Brenner is one of them, he had a calf injury, now he will undergo an MRI to have a clearer understanding of what happened," were the first words of the celestial strategist in a press conference.
"Medina has also felt the sequence a bit, as well as Pasquini who hasn't played in a while. Yotún, who has a huge workload on the field. The substitutions today were mainly due to physical issues, some fatigue or to prevent any injury. There was a huge physical strain in the last couple of days," he added.
Asked about the opponent, Nunes revealed that they struggled to attack during the first few minutes. "When we received Binacional's lineup, we saw that due to individual characteristics (Palacios, Núñez, Polar, Villamarín) they were offensive and it didn't catch us off guard. We struggled to understand the rhythm of the field, which was very wet, fast, and we had a lot of trouble with the first pass and perhaps for a team that is used to playing faster due to the altitude, it favored them," he said.
Finally, the Brazilian strategist assured that the first goal gave them "the necessary tranquility to control the ball." "The first goal was important because it marked a turning point and I'm happy because it has been a while since we scored from a free-kick, it's one of Martín's characteristics (Távara)," he concluded.
What is Sporting Cristal's next challenge?
After the match at the Alberto Gallardo, Sporting Cristal will have action again on Sunday, August 6th, when they visit ADT for matchday 7 of the Clausura Tournament 2023 of the Liga 1 Betsson. The match, which will be played at the Tarma Stadium, is scheduled to start at 15:15 hours (Peru and Colombia time).
Coach Tiago Nunes is fighting for the Clausura title as well as the national title. For that, they need to maintain their pace and continue earning three points in Lima and picking up points in other cities. Let's remember that the brewers have gone 14 matches without losing in the Peruvian championship. Their last defeat was on April 24th against Universitario de Deportes.
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