Alianza Lima will face Athletico Paranaense at the Alejandro Villanueva Stadium this Tuesday, April 4, for the first match of the group stage of the Copa Libertadores 2023. Under that premise, Chicho Salas already has the starting eleven ready to face the Brazilian club and try to break the 29-game winless streak in the tournament, but there is an unexpected surprise within the starting lineup and we'll tell you about it.
As we know, in the match against Cienciano for the Liga 1 last weekend, Alianza Lima took the field with a substitute team to give rest to their main players. However, the performance of one of the players surprised and that made Guillermo Salas consider him for the match against Paranaense.
We are referring to Jesús Castillo, and the LÍBERO journalist José Varela indicated that there is a high possibility that the blanquiazul strategist will start the midfielder due to his great performance against Cienciano del Cusco, being one of the players who recovered the most balls.
Thus, this would be Alianza Lima's starting eleven against Paranaense: Ángelo Campos; Ricardo Lagos, Carlos Zambrano, Santiago García, Edinson Chávez, Josepmir Ballón, Jesús Castillo, Bryan Reyna, Gabriel Costa, Christian Cueva, and Pablo Sabbag. Remember that Gino Perruzzi is almost ruled out due to an injury.
Alianza Lima's group in the Copa Libertadores
Alianza Lima shares a tough group with Athletico Paranaense and Atlético Mineiro, both from Brazil, and with Libertad from Paraguay. After the match at Matute, the team will travel to Asunción in a few weeks to face the Paraguayan team.