Luciano Dos Santos saved two penalties and scored from the spot himself as Uruguay’s River Plate completed a penalty shootout victory over San Lorenzo in the Copa Sudamericana quarter-finals on Wednesday.
In the day’s other quarter-final, Paraguay’s Cerro Porteno beat Brazil’s Botafogo 3-1 and 5-2 on aggregate.
In the semi-finals, River will play either Liga de Quito of Ecuador or Velez Sarsfield of Argentina, while Cerro Porteno will face either Universidad de Chile or Fluminense of Brazil.
In Buenos Aires, River Plate’s Richard Porta scored a minute after halftime after a mistake by the San Lorenzo defense.
Following San Lorenzo’s 1-0 triumph in the first leg, River’s win by the same score sent the match to penalties.
Dos Santos saved Jonathan Bottinelli’s shot and Gaston Aguirre missed for San Lorenzo, while Jorge Rodriguez and Porta failed for River.
After scoring his own penalty, Dos Santos then made the decisive save from San Lorenzo striker Pablo Pintos to secure the 7-6 shootout win.
In Rio, Jorge Nunez opened the scoring in the 57th minute to put Cerro Porteno in charge against Botafogo.
Andre Lima equalized in the 74th minute, but Alessandro was sent off three minutes later with Botafogo still needing another goal to level the aggregate scores.
Cerro Porteno took advantage of the extra man to rubber-stamp their passage to the semis with goals from Julio Irrazabal in the 88th minute and Luis Caceres in stoppage-time.
The two-legged semi-finals will start next week.
The Washington Capitals and Winnipeg Jets on Saturday did not disappoint in a thrilling midseason matchup in front of a fired-up sellout crowd of more than 18,500 fans. The top two teams in the NHL delivered with a combined nine goals, including the 877th of Alex Ovechkin’s career to put him 18 back of breaking Wayne Gretzky’s record. That tied the score, the Jets pulled it out in overtime and just about everyone involved got their money’s worth out of the 5-4 game. “We knew how we were both sitting in the standings and both having real good years,” Winnipeg coach Scott
BACK-TO-BACK: The League One club, which is owned by stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, is sparing no expense to clinch promotion to the Championship Hollywood endings are pricey, even in England’s third division. In pursuit of their third straight promotion, Wrexham AFC splashed some cash at League One rival Reading to secure the services of striker Sam Smith. The Welsh club owned by actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney confirmed the signing of the 26-year-old Smith on Friday. He is one of the top scorers in the third division. The transfer fee was not disclosed, but British media widely reported it to be about ￡2 million (US$2.48 million) — not extravagant, but a hefty price at this level and it would be about the same figure that
Manchester City have reached do-or-die territory in the UEFA Champions League earlier than expected ahead of what Pep Guardiola has described as a “final” against Club Brugge today. City have disproved the suggestion a new format to Europe’s top club competition would remove any jeopardy for the top clubs as Guardiola stares down the barrel of failing to make the Champions League knockout stages for the first time in his career. The English champions have endured a torrid season both in their English Premier League title defense and on the continent. A run of one win in 13 games, which included Champions League
Inter on Sunday were given a letoff when they snatched a late 1-1 derby draw with AC Milan, while league leaders SSC Napoli were held by a late goal at AS Roma. Reigning champions Inter remain three points behind Napoli, who looked to be heading five clear as they led in Rome until Angelino volleyed in a stunning leveler in the first minute of stoppage-time. Angelino’s strike gave even more significance to Stefan de Vrij’s last-gasp equalizer at the San Siro. The defender forced home Nicola Zalewski’s knockdown just as it looked like Tijjani Reijnders’ opener would be enough for Milan. “I can
RSS