Flamengo beat Cruz Azul, win Derbi de las Américas, advance in Cup | OneFootball

Larcamón’s Cementeros were unable to overcome a Mengao side that, without showing much superiority, took advantage of the chances they had.

Flamengo are the champions of the Derbi de las Américas. In a match that gave us more anticipation than reality, Mengao prevailed 2-1 over Cruz Azul, lifted the trophy, and advanced to the next stage of the Intercontinental Cup.

From a footballing perspective, the match offered us very little. Mengao managed to open the scoring thanks to a blunder by Gonzalo Piovi as he tried to play out from the back, which quickly turned into a goal thanks to the standout player of the match: Giorgian De Arrascaeta. He feinted the goalkeeper and finished simply into the empty net.

The goal somewhat woke up the Máquina. Nicolás Larcamón’s men began to press a bit higher up the pitch and it paid off: before the end of the first half, Jorge Sánchez pounced on a rebound in front of goal after a poor clearance by Leo Ortiz and, with an unstoppable rocket, leveled the match.

The second half didn’t have much action. Amid inconsequential passing and lackluster finishing, Flamengo found a dangerous play that brought suspense. De Arrascaeta took advantage of a completely split Cementeros defense to chip the ball over the goalkeeper and, after a check with the referee’s watch, made it 2-1 for the final score.

With this title—which, by the way, FIFA counts as official—Flamengo advances to the next round of the Intercontinental Cup, where they will face Egypt’s Pyramids for a spot in the grand final against Paris Saint-Germain.

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