San Lorenzo breaks curse, beats Junior 1-0 in Copa Libertadores

Argentine San Lorenzo snapped a 15-match losing streak on Wednesday and won 1-0 at their Pedro Bidegain home stadium in Buenos Aires over Colombians Junior de Barranquilla on the second day of Group F of the Copa Libertadores.

The only goal of the match was made by midfielder Roman Martinez in the 77th minute.

Gabriel Fuentes, of Junior, was sent off with a red card in the 28th minute after he violently used his elbow against Damian Perez.

In the 50th minute a blackout occurred in the stadium which forced a stoppage of the match for about ten minutes.

With this result Palmeiras leads Group F with six points, followed by San Lorenzo with four, Melgar with 1 and Junior de Barranquilla, without a point.

In the first few minutes, San Lorenzo’s Colombian striker Andres Renteria had a clear chance to score after a very good collective play, but his shot was deflected by Uruguayan goalkeeper Sebastian Viera.

The players of the local team had their notorious ups and downs. At times they played good attack with several passes and then they failed on simple passes without any pressure.

The coach of the visiting team, Luis Fernando Suarez, had to replace Matias Fernandez with David Murillo to put his defense back together and from that moment the team fell back.

San Lorenzo took the lead on the field and had more ball possession and effective chances, but could not generate clear goal shots in the first half.

In the second half, the Junior managed to stand closer to the goal of Fernando Monetti and even had chances to score.

As the minutes went by, San Lorenzo became desperate, seeing the possibility of a victory slip from their hands.

The goal by Martinez, in the 77th minute, gave San Lorenzo peace of mind again.

From that moment on, the team of coach Jorge Almiron, who achieved his first victory as coach of the team, performed more solid.

On the third day of Group F, San Lorenzo will receive Palmeiras and Junior will visit Melgar on Apr 2.