Calleri fumes at booking for Boca return leg: “They left me out” | OneFootball

São Paulo captain Jonathan Calleri expressed confidence in the team’s ability to bounce back after the 1-0 defeat to Boca Juniors on Tuesday night (8) at La Bombonera Stadium in Argentina, but strongly complained about the yellow card he received, which rules him out of the second leg.

The result in the first leg of the Copa Sudamericana quarterfinals left Tricolor at a disadvantage in the race for a place in the competition’s semifinals. The return leg will take place at Morumbi next Tuesday (15).

Despite his confidence in the team result, Calleri will be a confirmed absentee for the coaching staff in the decisive match. The Argentine received his third yellow card after getting involved in an altercation with midfielder Belmonte in the second half and will serve an automatic suspension. In his outburst, the striker criticized the referee’s attitude during the match.

“The referee knew I had two yellow cards, and he gave me a yellow card for nothing. I can’t talk to him during the technical stoppage. But it’s part of the game, there’s no point complaining. I always complain and get a yellow card. They left me out of a decisive match, it’s very bad for me, but there’s nothing I can do,” the No. 9 vented in an interview with SBT.

Calleri confident

Tricolor created good chances to open the scoring in the first half, but Luciano and the No. 9 himself wasted them. In the second half, striker Miguel Merentiel scored the game’s only goal for the home side. Despite the disadvantage, Calleri looked ahead to the second leg in front of the São Paulo fans.

“It was a very difficult game. We hardly won any second balls, and the game became difficult for us. They had the ball, had one scoring chance, and scored a goal. Next week it’s at Morumbi, we’ll put on our show and work to turn the tie around. We’re confident, we’re very strong at Morumbi. We’ll give our best to reach the semifinals,” the striker said as he left the field.

Upcoming challenges

With the setback in Buenos Aires, São Paulo will need a win by two or more goals in the second leg to advance to the semifinals in regulation time.

A São Paulo victory by one goal will send the decision on who advances to a penalty shootout. The decisive match takes place next Tuesday at 9:30 p.m. (Brasília time) at Morumbi Stadium.

Before the continental clash, São Paulo turns its attention back to the Brazilian Championship. Tricolor faces Palmeiras this Saturday (12) at 6:30 p.m. at the Alviverde arena in a derby valid for the 27th round of the national tournament.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.