With exactly the same formation as in the goleada against Independiente Del Valle, Palmeiras faced Defensa y Justicia shattered by a covid outburst affecting 15 players, including their star Braian Romero.
The first half saw Palmeiras with more ball possession, but struggling to create opportunities, with Rony wasting the only clear one materializing in the last minute before the break. Back to the second half with Felipe Melo replacing Danilo, the team improved its game to came back from Argentina with the three points.
Two minutes into the second half, Luiz Adriano’s pass cut like a knife, beautifully assisting Rony’s first goal of the night. Defensa y Justicia didn’t react and in the 56th minute, Luiz Adriano again found Rony to score the brace. The Argentinian team found the net in the 68th minute and threatened to equalize, but Palmeiras resisted well the pressure applied by the homeowners to guarantee a third straight victory in the competition.
Line-up
Weverton; Luan, Gustavo Gómez, Renan; Marcos Rocha, Danilo (Felipe Melo), Patrick de Paula (Danilo Barbosa), Raphael Veiga (Mayke) and Victor Luis; Rony and Luiz Adriano (Wesley).
Victor Luis received a yellow card.
Green Light
Another Libertadores night, another gala exhibition by Rony. Brilliantly assisted twice by Luiz Adriano, our number 7 now computes nine goals and nine assists in 14 Libertadores appearances for Palmeiras. Currently level with legend Ademir “Divino” da Guia, he’s just three goals behind Alex, our top scorer in the Libertadores. Rony has everything going for him to take the lead already in this edition.
Yellow Light
After building the two-goal advantage, Palmeiras retreated too much and allowed DyJ to launch an endless sequence of crossed balls into our box. One of those found the back of the net and made the final minutes of the game more tense than necessary.
Red Light
Defensa y Justicia’s goal came through a sequence almost identical to the first goal of Universitario and some of the corners by the Argentinian team created dangerous situations too. Abel must work on our defense against aerial attacks.
Next Challenge
Palmeiras play the fourth round of the 2021 Copa Libertadores group stage next Tuesday, against Independiente Del Valle in Ecuador. Before that, there are two appointments in the São Paulo state Championship: Santos (tomorrow Thursday) and Ponte Preta (Sunday). Probably, Palmeiras won’t advance to the knockout phase of the regional tournament, which will instead allow for some rest and training. Seems like a great trade-off to us.
Scoppia che la vittoria è nostra!
– – – ooo – – –
by Augusto Anteghini Oazi
*Here at Anything Palmeiras, we love football. We love Palmeiras. We are always keen to see Palmeiras play, and keen to write about it for you. But we’re against the return of football in a country that still hasn’t controlled the coronavirus pandemic. We express our deepest sympathy to the families whose loved ones have been taken by the disease.
ANYTHING PALMEIRAS 