RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Angel Romero with a brace, and Alejandro Romero Gamarra with another goal, sealed Paraguay’s 3-1 win in a match they started behind to a penalty from Bolivia, which felt the last-minute player absences due to Covid-19 and the early expulsion of Jaume Cuellar.
The come-from-behind win secured the top spot in Group A of the Copa América.
Hours earlier, Argentina and Chile had tied 1-1 in Rio de Janeiro. Uruguay will make its debut against the Argentines on Thursday.
In the 9th minute, Bolivia took the lead in its first attack, which was cleared by Santiago Arzamendia’s hand and penalized with a penalty kick that Erwin Saavedra took a minute later.
The goal did not reflect what was to come: a Paraguay team that went for the win from the first minute.
In the 19th minute, Peruvian referee Diego Haro checked VAR for an obstruction of Gabriel Avalos by the Bolivian goalkeeper inside the area, which was disallowed for an earlier offside.
With Roberto Piris and Romero Gamara as a midfield duo, the red-and-white striped “Albirroja” were pressing all the time, gaining depth in attack with the tactics of coach Eduardo Berizzo.
The Paraguayans continued to generate advantage and had the clearest scoring chance in the 42nd minute, when Romero Gamarra did the most difficult thing: shooting wide from a few meters away from Cordano.
Bolivia’s green-jerseyed “La Verde”, missing important players such as striker Marcelo Martins Moreno, focused on containing their opponents and waiting for counterattacks with Saavedra as the organizer and Gilbert Alvarez as the only man up front.
The Bolivian side’s obvious inferiority deepened at the end of the first half with Cuellar’s red card for a double caution.
Berizzo’s team came out to finish the second half against a subdued Bolivian team that in the 59th minute was saved by the crossbar from what could have been the equalizer, a shot by Romero Gamarro.
Paraguay continued to give no respite to their opponents, so that after three minutes came the equalizer, with a shot from outside the area scored by Romero Gamarra.
Shortly after, Ángel Romero turned the game around with his second goal after the Bolivians seemed to have already given up on attacking.
In the second half there was only one attacking move by Bolivia, which resulted in a great shot by the recently substituted Rodrigo Ramallo that was saved by Antony Silva.
However, Paraguay’s third goal was at hand, which made a pair for Ángel Romero, the most outstanding player along with the other Romero (Gamarra).
– Technical details (substitutes in parentheses, m. = minute):
Paraguay: Antony Silva; Alberto Espínola, Gustavo Gómez, Junior Alonso and Santiago Arzamendia; Mathias Villasanti (m.45, Richard Sánchez), Robert Piris (m.56, Carlos González) and Alejandro Romero Gamarra (m.86, Andrés Cubas); Gabriel Ávalos (m.86, Julio Enciso) and Ángel Romero and Miguel Almirón.
Coach: Eduardo Berizzo
Bolivia: Rubén Cordano; Jairo Quinteros, José Segredo, Adrián Jusino and Diego Bejarano; Leonel Justiniano (m.74 Erwin Sánchez), Boris Cespedes (m.45, Danny Bejarano), Erwin Saavedra (m.65, Diego Wallar), Jaume Cuellar and Enrique Flores (m.45, Roberto Fernández); Gilbert Alvarez (m.70, Rodrigo Ramallo).
Coach: Cesar Farias
Goals: 0-1, minute 10: Erwin Saavedra, penalty kick. 1-1, 62nd minute: Alejandro Romero ‘Kaku’ Gamarra. 2-1, 65th minute: Ángel Romero. 3-1, 80th minute: Ángel Romero.
Referee: Peruvian Diego Haro sent off Jaume Cuéllar (45+9 minutes) for a double caution and showed yellow cards to Santiago Arzamendia, Diego Bejarano, Enrique Flores and Alberto Espínola.