Arley Rodríguez puts Deportivo Pereira 1-0 ahead of Boca Juniors. At the moment, the Colombian team is obtaining three important points in the Copa Libertadores.
Deportivo Pereira, which is playing in the Copa Libertadores for the first time this year, defeated Boca Juniors 1-0 with a goal from striker Arley Rodríguez in the fourth round of Group F of the continental tournament.
With this result, the Argentine club maintained the leadership with seven points, the same as Pereira, which is ahead in the standings due to goal difference. Colo Colo, on the other hand, is third with five points, while Monagas is last with two points.
In the first half, neither of the two teams took control of the game and the dominance was shared at the Hernán Ramírez Villegas stadium, which was packed. The match was played far from the penalty areas and there were hardly any skirmishes that caused much harm.
In that sense, the Grande Matecaña, led by Alejandro Restrepo, approached the opponent's goal with a weak shot that was easily saved by Sergio 'Chiquito' Romero, while Boca only had their first shot at the 37th minute with a shot from winger Sebastián Villa that passed without much danger for Aldair Quintana's goal.
At the end of the first half, the hosts almost scored when Paraguayan forward Danilo Santacruz received the ball in the area from a free-kick and took a shot that went wide.
In the second half, the pace of the game remained the same and there were few opportunities.
Pereira wasted a counterattack in which midfielder Jhonny Vásquez, alone in the area, took a weak shot that Romero easily saved.
Boca, on the other hand, had more of the ball and spent more time in the opposing half, but struggled to put forwards Sebastián Villa and Darío Benedetto in comfortable positions in front of Quintana's goal.
In that context, the game became destabilized when center-back Nicolás Figal brought down Angelo Rodríguez in the area in the 72nd minute and two minutes later, in the penalty kick, 'Chiquito' Romero saved midfielder Juan Pablo Zuluaga's shot.
However, the joy of Jorge Almirón's team was short-lived as playmaker Johan Bocanegra sent a precise cross to striker Arley Rodríguez, who had come on in the second half and scored with a powerful header to celebrate with the crowd that filled the Hernán Ramírez Villegas stadium.
In the closing stages, the Colombians came closer to increasing the lead against an opponent who was knocked out after the goal.
EFE.