Tiago Nunes after the defeat against Cienciano in Cusco: "I am the ultimate responsible"

Sporting Cristal did not close last Sunday night as expected. A tough result in Cusco left them with few opportunities to fight for the title of the Clausura Tournament of Liga 1 Betsson, after losing 1-0 to Cienciano (currently, Rímac's team remains with 33 points and is three points behind Universitario de Deportes, the leader of the tournament). The reasons? According to Tiago Nunes, there were many factors that influenced the game not going as they had planned, although that does not diminish his responsibility for the final score.

In a press conference, the Brazilian strategist said: "It is difficult at this moment to see the exact factor that influenced the team not playing well. But all teams suffer here, we are talking about the altitude, specifically today, we generated goal situations just like Cienciano, we had the difficulty of controlling the transitions but we did not have defensive balance and in the end a goal that could have been avoided".

He also added that "I think that the situation of our difficulties at the end of the tournament does not depend on today or the defeat in Cusco. It happened in matches against Sport Boys, UTC, matches that we played to win and we did not have the clarity to score goals". With this result, now the Rimenses depend on other matches to know if they stay with the Clausura title or not.

Regarding how the squad has fared throughout the season, Nunes noted that his goal was the growth of the players. "I have to focus on improving this team, I am the main responsible. We have to leave a good impression for our people", he explained to the media.

Finally, he analyzed how the match against 'Papá' went: "We missed scoring the chances we had, better control of the transitions, we are the team with the most possession but you can't make so many mistakes in passes, you have to be sharp to do it, otherwise you create chances for the opponent. In the second half we had more opportunities, goals disallowed for offside, we lacked effectiveness and were more organized in defense".

Sporting Cristal ended the 18th matchday of the Clausura with 33 points, ranking fourth in the table, while in the Accumulated they have 68 points and are in third place. With these records, in Rímac they hope that Universitario de Deportes, Melgar, and Alianza Lima lose their last matches in order to win the tournament and, thus, occupy the second position in the Accumulated. In this scenario, they would face Alianza Lima directly in a final match.

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