Crespo yet to win by the margin needed for Libertadores qualification | OneFootball

São Paulo lost to LDU 2-0 in the first leg of the Copa Libertadores quarterfinals on Thursday (18th), and now they will have to overturn a two-goal deficit to at least take the match to penalties next week at Morumbi.

To qualify for the semifinals, however, Tricolor will need, above all, to overcome. And break a taboo of their own coach.

Since returning to the helm of the Morumbi club, Hernán Crespo has 16 matches, with eight wins, four draws and four losses, resulting in a 62% success rate.

However, none of these eight victories by the Argentine was by a three-goal difference, the difference needed for São Paulo to qualify in regular time next week.

Of these eight victories by the Tricolor coach, however, only three were by a two-goal difference, a score that takes the decision of the spot to penalties: 2-0 over Corinthians and Atlético-MG and a 3-1 over Fluminense.

If we count the entire season, on only one occasion this season Tricolor achieved a result that would directly qualify them for the Libertadores semifinals: it was on the distant February 5, when they thrashed Mirassol 4-1 in the Paulista Championship.

The last time São Paulo managed to qualify for the next phase of the Libertadores after losing the first leg by at least two goals difference was in 1993.

On that occasion, the Morumbi club lost the first leg of the round of 16 by the same 2-0 to Newell’s Old Boys, from Argentina, away from home. The opponent had been precisely the rival in the Libertadores final the previous year, when Tricolor lifted the title after a penalty shootout.

But they managed to overturn the score on the return, at home, winning 4-0 and continuing on the path to secure the bi of the continental competition.

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