4-1: Paranaense eliminates América de Cali from the Copa Sudamericana

Athletico Paranaense eliminated Colombia's América de Cali on Tuesday, which they thrashed 4-1 with a double from Vitinho, a penalty from Nikao and a goal in the last minute from Canesin, and advanced to the quarterfinals of the Sudamericana, in those who will be measured against the Ecuadorian Quito League.

The Curitiba team, who had won 0-1 last week in the first leg in Cali with a Nikao penalty, made their dominance clearer with a new victory, by a landslide, in the second leg, to prevail in the tie 5-1.

América came to draw with a penalty from Adrián Ramos when he was already at a numerical disadvantage due to the expulsion of Andrade, but Paranaense quickly neutralized that reaction.

After eliminating América, Paranaense will now face the Quito League in the quarterfinals, which this Tuesday eliminated Gremio in the second round after overcoming an adverse score in the first leg and winning 1-2 in the second leg.

The draw allowed Paranaense to increase to six the number of games in which they remain undefeated in the Sudamericana playing at home on the synthetic floor court of the Arena da Baixada stadium, where they have not lost so far this year.

The Paranaense only needed a few seconds of the game to generate the first dangerous play with a header from Vitinho after Nikao's lift that passed close to the crossbar.

Vitinho himself had other opportunities in the first minutes, fed mainly by Uruguayan David Terans, but failed in the finishes. Despite the dominance of the locals in the first minutes, the Cali team began to play with more order and balance the game.

But Vitinho put an end to America's dream of reaction with a goal in the 26th minute when he finished off an assist from Terans in the area after a play started by Nikao and Christian.

The locals increased the pressure and four minutes later Terans took advantage of a mistake by goalkeeper Graterol and scored the second for Athletico, but the goal was canceled out of place.

Paranaense maintained dominance and pressure in the last fifteen minutes of the first half and almost increased in the 34th minute with a header from Matheus Babi and two minutes later with a shot from Terans that forced Graterol to save America.

Babi squandered another opportunity to raise the score in the 43rd minute after invading the area after a pass from Terans and shooting wide despite being free of marking.

For the Colombian club, the only one with options to react was Ureña, who constantly bothered within the Paranaense area. América coach Juan Carlos Osorio made two changes at the beginning of the second half and, with the sacrifice of a midfielder, tried to give the Colombian club more offensive power in an attempt to come back and seek classification.

But the Paranaense maintained dominance with Terans as a bridge for all attack plays, many of which were wasted by Babi, who abused in the lack of aim.

The situation became even more complicated for the visitors ten minutes into the second half when Andrade received his second yellow for stepping on Cittadini and was sent off. Despite the disadvantage on the scoreboard and in the number of players, América tried to react led by Adrián Ramos, who began to approach the area until in the 17th minute he was knocked down inside the area by Pedro Henrique.

The penalty was initially ignored by the referee but confirmed by the VAR after several minutes of consultation and Ramos himself was in charge of kicking it and equalizing the score. But Vitinho scored his second goal a minute later by taking advantage of a play that Nikao failed to complete and Nikao scored the third for the Paranaense from a penalty after Graterol knocked down Babi on the field.

After defining the victory, the Paranaense coach, Portuguese Toni Oliveira, preferred to manage the wide advantage and changed five of his players, including the striker Vitinho, the striker Babi and the star Terans. When everything seemed decided, Canesin increased the quarter of the premises in the last minute of the game.