Uruguay, with a courageous joint Nahitan Nández and Gastón Pereiro in the second minute of discount of the final period, beat Ecuador 1 to 0 in Montevideo and climbed to third place in the Qualifiers South Americans heading to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
The match played in the Campeón del Siglo stadium, in Peñarol de Montevideo, in front of more than 15 thousand people that the Uruguayan authorities authorized as capacity, became a match between two experienced chess players such as maestro Oscar Tabárez and Argentine Gustavo Alfaro, technical director of Ecuador.
Before the meeting, the statistics did not favor the Ecuadorians since they could never win in Montevideo, but in the last three presentations, those led by Alfaro got three draws, narrowing the gap.
Alfaro put together a geometric figure that helped him in the pressure, since as soon as the ball and the defenders or flyers of Uruguay approached the middle of the field, the Ecuadorians exerted pressure.
In that scheme, the right side stood out Byron Castillo, who plays for Barcelona in Guayaquil and who had presented documentation problems and for that reason Alfaro had not cited him until this triple qualifying date, according to the Ecuadorian press.
The idea was to give the ball to Gaibor to handle it until the presence of Ecuadorian players grew, although always being attentive to the strikes of the fast and burly Estrada and Plata.
In addition, Estrada unfolded marking Nández until Estupiñán took him as soon as the midfield passed. While on the side of the “Celeste”, Giorgian De Arrascaeta tried to move between Gruezo and the centrals. albeit with little luck.
In both teams there was a lot of drive and commitment to the game, because the ball went from 3/4 to 3/4, although without demanding the goalkeepers, since the attacks faded at the feet of the defenders of both teams.
At second half both teams continued to respect the scheme drawn up by their strategists, the “Celeste” searching with a lot of disorder and few ideas, while Ecuador maintained its stance of handcuffing those led by Tabárez and hitting as soon as an opportunity opened up.
So the minutes went by until near the end, in the 39th minute, Matías Vecino converted from outside the area, but the referee overruled after consulting with the VAR because the Valencia forward, Maximiliano Gómez, who participated in the previous triangulation, was returning from a clear offside.
But When the game was dying, Pereiro agreed with Tabárez who included him due to a blurred De Arrascaeta, when a center from the tireless ex-Boca Nández headed into the net., one of the celestial figures, and thus place the veteran coach and his team in third place in the standings with 15 points.
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