Boca, Corinthians and Vasco progress
Reuters - Thursday 10 May 2012, 18:08
Boca Juniors, Corinthians and
Vasco da Gama moved into the Copa Libertadores quarter-finals on
Wednesday but with varying degrees of difficulty.
Corinthians were the night's most convincing winners with a
comprehensive 3-0 victory over Ecuadorean side Emelec. The first
leg ended goalless but it took the Sao Paulo giants just seven
minutes to break the deadlock at home through Fabio Santos.
Corinthians missed a hatful of chances but eventually
grabbed a second in the 64th minute thanks to Paulinho, before
Alex gave them a deserved third five minutes from time.
They will meet another Brazilian side in the quarter-finals
after Vasco da Gama knocked out Lanus on penalties.
The Argentine side won 2-1 on the night, to make the
aggregate all square at 3-3. Vasco scored all five of their
penalties in the shootout and went through 5-4 after Silvio
Romero missed Lanus's second spot-kick.
There was some consolation for Argentina, however, thanks to
a sterling performance from Boca Juniors. Spurred on by the
mercurial Juan Roman Riquelme, the six-time champion beat Union
Espanola 3-2 to take the tie 5-3 on aggregate.
Riquelme capped a great performance with a wonderful solo
goal in the 67th minute.
Boca will play the winners of the all-Brazilian tie between
Fluminense and Inter.