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Atlético Junior suffered an unexpected defeat this Wednesday in the first leg of the quarterfinals of the South American Cup: they fell 1-2 with Coquimbo Unido, from Chile, and felt the absences they had due to the covid-19 outbreak in the squad , as well as injured and suspended.
With the goals of Joe Abrigo and Argentine Lautaro Palacios, who entered in the second half, the Pirates traced the penalty that Miguel Borja converted for a depleted Junior who hours before the game registered eight players infected with covid-19, so only had four in the bank.
The pirates had the first approach at minute 13 when Espinoza overflowed and sent a cross that reached Abrigo, who could not finish as he would have liked but scared the Barranquilla fans.
The shark, led by Amaranto Perea who was absent due to covid-19 and was replaced by his assistant Luis Grau, was awarded a dubious penalty at minute 17 when the winger Edwuin Cetré leaked a pass to Borja, who was supposedly knocked down by him Argentine goalkeeper Matías Cano.
The game was stopped for eight minutes while the referee reviewed the VAR and the Chilean team’s doctors attended to the goalkeeper, who was resentful in the play but remained on the court, after which Borja himself took a powerful right hand that beat the Argentine in the 25.
Coquimbo reacted after the goal but had difficulties to break the organized defense of the locals, who with the passage of minutes recovered the ball and tried to increase their advantage with long balls for Borja and Michael Rangel, two hyperactive forwards who were a pain of constant head for the defenders.
In the complementary stage, Junior attacked first and in one of the first moves he almost scored, as Borja and Rangel teamed up and left Cetré hand in hand with the goalkeeper, who took a right hand that did not enter because he crashed with the face of Cano, who took a few seconds to compose himself.
However, the local spark faded as the minutes passed, in which the fatigue accumulated by the Barranquilla club was evident, and the visitors were getting closer and closer to the goal of the Uruguayan Sebastián Viera. This is how Fernando Manríquez stole a ball from his rival in the 72nd minute and passed it to Abrigo, who did not hesitate and took a very strong shot that deflected into the center Dany Rosero and got into the bottom of the goal of an uncomfortable Viera.
After that play, the hosts tried to react, for which Daniel Moreno and Luis Sandoval entered, but they failed to do so and, on the contrary, ended up losing the match in a great play at 88 by Cristofer Salas who passed the ball to Palacios , who received in the area got rid of Rosero with a twist and took a shot that was impossible to stop for the Uruguayan goalkeeper.
In the end, Junior attacked with his last remains, he had an opportunity to equalize and did not make it happen, so he will have to row against the current and win by two goals in Coquimbo to qualify for the semifinals.
