Luciano rues missed chances, urges São Paulo to avoid errors in Ecuador | OneFootball

Thursday night (18) in Quito was definitely not Luciano’s night. The striker had some good chances to score, but missed them and couldn’t prevent São Paulo’s 2-0 defeat to LDU in the Copa Libertadores.

After the setback in Ecuador, the São Paulo number 10 was seen still on the pitch, shaking his head, lamenting alone, and reflecting on the defeat in the first leg of the quarterfinals. Asked about his dejected moment on the field, Luciano was hard on himself.

“I can’t miss this kind of goal in a final phase like this, in such a tough match. Any goal would have helped us and made things easier for the return leg. So I was thinking that when I get this chance, I have to finish and score, but unfortunately it didn’t happen today,” the striker told Paramount.

“Now it’s time to work so that, God willing, next Thursday the goals will come and we’ll qualify,” Luciano added, referring to the return match at Morumbi.

The result could have been better for São Paulo. The team started well, but lost momentum after conceding the first goal. They came back stronger in the second half, and when it seemed they might equalize, they slipped up again in defense and conceded the second. Even so, they kept pushing and almost scored at the end.

For São Paulo’s top scorer, the Ecuadorian goals shouldn’t have happened due to the team’s lapses in certain situations.

“Talking about today, we started the game well, then in the second half we controlled it too, but the goals we conceded, I think we could have avoided those kinds of goals. But now it’s about seeing what we did wrong, seeing what needs to be fixed, and in the Morumbi game, with the support of our fans, God willing, we’ll turn this score around,” the player concluded.

Now Tricolor is chasing the result and will need to win by at least two goals in the return match next Thursday (25), at 7:00 p.m. (Brasília time), at Morumbi, to at least take the decision of the spot in the semifinals to penalties.

Before that, however, the club returns to the field at 8:30 p.m. (Brasília time) on Sunday (21) for the classic against Santos, at Vila Belmiro, for the Brazilian Championship.

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