Universitario and Sporting Cristal will play the most anticipated match of round 15 of Liga 1. The match, which will be played at the Estadio Nacional, can either widen the gap between the current leaders, Sporting Cristal, and their direct rival, or bring Universitario within 1 point of them.
Universitario comes into this match after a 3-0 victory against Carlos A. Mannucci at the Estadio Monumental, while Sporting Cristal also faces this duel with a last-minute away victory against Ayacucho FC.
Lineups for Universitario vs. Sporting Cristal
- Universitario: José Carvallo; Aldo Corzo, Piero Guzmán, Federico Alonso, Nelinho Quina; Jorge Murrugarra, Jordan Guivin, Piero Quispe, Alberto Quintero, Andy Polo, and Alexander Succar
- Sporting Cristal: Alejandro Duarte; Johan Madrid, Omar Merlo, Gianfranco Chávez, Nilson Loyola; Horacio Calcaterra, Martín Távara, Jesús Castillo; Leandro Sosa, Alejandro Hohberg, and Irven Ávila
The numbers this year favor Sporting Cristal. The team hasn't won in the Torneo Apertura, but they have gone 23 matches without a defeat. The last time they lost in Liga 1 was on April 8, away against César Vallejo.
Irven Ávila, one of the players with the most minutes for Sporting Cristal this year, said in an interview with GolPerú: “We are aware that every match will be a final, each team is playing for different things. We were able to get the 3 points that were important for what we want. We haven't won anything yet, we have 5 finals left, and we have to take it one match at a time”.
Carlos Compagnucci, the coach of Universitario, said: “We are in a good moment, in a comeback, we have been doing it in several matches, we had a slight stumble in the previous one, some distractions cost us the two goals but the team is strong, we believe and we know that we have to go for every match and try to win”.