On November 6, 2022, it was the last time that Alexander Duarte stopped under the three sticks of the goal of Sporting Cristal. On that occasion, the celestial lost 2-0 with Melgar in the semifinal of the League 1 Play Offs. After that, an injury prevented the ‘1’ from starting the preseason in the desired way, having to resign himself to not being taken into account in the first days of the 2023 tournament, both in League 1 and in the Copa Libertadores (Renato Solís was in charge of assuming the position on the board of Tiago Nunes).
Along the way, Renato Solís appeared -again-, who chained good performances in the Bajo Pontina goal, making the absence of ‘Alejo’ have to delay even more, despite the fact that he was in the final part of his recovery and could return to be taken into account by Tiago Nunes.
However, last Wednesday, Alexander Duarte returned to the arch of Sporting Cristal for the clash against Binacional (it was 1-0 in favor of the Rimenses), so he could not hide his happiness after ninety minutes of play, in which he managed to keep his fence undefeated.
“He was very excited to play again. I went through difficult months and when they told me I was going to play, I was very happy. You had to be very focused to play a good game and that it ended with a win and even more so with a clean sheet makes me very happy.”the goalkeeper told the media on his arrival at the Jorge Chávez airport.
Sporting Cristal vs. Binational: the chronicle of the party
It was not an easy task for Sporting Cristalfor the following reasons: the binational of Darío Franco became strong since he returned to the Guillermo Briceño Rosamedina stadium (in the record he arrived with a draw and three victories) and, in turn, for the 3,800-meter altitude. With all that background, any point was a good deal for Tiago Nunes’ squad.
Now, in the midst of this panorama, those from Rímac brought out the ‘celestial race’ and even with one less player, from 39′ (they sent off Flavio Alcedo), they endured with everything in this difficult place and at the end they got three points from gold, thanks to a great goal by Leandro Sosa.
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