Lima Alliance took this Wednesday a giant step to win the second stage of the Peruvian league by beat Melgar 1-0 and thus expand its advantage over Sporting Cristal, which in turn was beaten 1-3 by Carlos Mannucci. In the absence of five days to conclude the tournament, Alianza accumulates 30 points and leads by nine to Cristal, who has one more match pending to play.
The Blue and White team, led by Argentine coach Carlos Bustos, added their fourth consecutive win in a difficult match, the first of the final stretch of the championship in which they will face four of the top eight finishers. Despite playing with one less player from minute 55 due to the expulsion of Josué Valenzuela, the alliance team won with a solitary goal from the young Peruvian striker Jairo Concha. “We knew it was a very important game because Melgar is a good team. We have already secured the Copa Libertadores. Now we have to go for Phase 2 and God willing for the national title,” Concha said at the end of the match. For his part, Bustos acknowledged that it is a “very important” victory and highlighted his team’s ability to know how to play outnumbered.
Cristal’s defeat over Mannucci made the celestial team fall to third place in the tournament to the detriment of the Sport Boys, which is momentarily in second place after win 3-2 against Cusco in a heart attack ending, with a penalty goal in added time from Tarek Carranza. The pink team is the great revelation of this second phase of the season and it has options to qualify to play an international tournament next season. With his victory over Cristal, Mannucci is in fourth place with 20 points, only one less than the current national champion, who has not found consistency in the second half of the season in Peru.
On Tuesday Cienciano and UTC equaled two goals and the Alianza Atlético beat Ayacucho 0-1 with a lone penalty goal from Víctor Perlaza. Matchday twelfth will close on Thursday with four games, the most prominent being the Universitario, which will face Alianza Universidad with the aim of adding its second triumph in the new era for Uruguayan coach Gregorio Pérez. It will also be the turn of San Martín, who after the departure of coach César Payovich will try to get his first win in the tournament against César Vallejo thanks to his successor on the bench, José Espinoza. Likewise, Deportivo Municipal will face off against Sport Huancayo and Cantolao will try to take advantage of the delicate moment that Binacional is going through.