Luis Paredes responds to the absence of Cortés, Cataño and Ruiz

The different injuries, added to the call of Óscar Cortés to the Colombian National Team for the Under 20 World Cup, raised problems for Alberto Gamero when designing the starting eleven at a key moment of the season. Millonarios faces the start of the BetPlay League home runs and Copa Sudamericana commitments with several absences.

He raffled the first challenge against Independiente Medellín at the Atanasio Girardot (2-2 tie at the start of the FPC finals) and this Tuesday, he forcefully beat Peñarol in El Campín by Cup. Beyond the casualties and the possibility of changing the scheme, Gamero opted to maintain the 4-2-3-1, giving confidence to two youth wingers: Beckham David Castro and Luis Paredes.

The first of them has been playing since Cortés’ game at the World Cup; while Paredes took center stage in the most recent meetings: he started three of the last four games.

Paredes, outstanding in the victory against Peñarol in Bogotá

Although the 4-2-3-1 has prevailed as the main system of Millionaires, this semester Gamero tried variants that led to speculation about a possible change to face Peñarol. The 5-4-1, 4-3-3 and 4-4-2 were used at specific moments in different matches. However, for the key duel in Sudamericana, DT maintained the structure with two front-line midfielders, a striker (Mackalister Silva), two wingers and a center forward.

Luis Paredes played as a winger on the right, a position that was recently occupied by Cortés, Daniel Cataño and even, by Luis Carlos Ruiz, three of the absent. He was one of the most outstanding in the Ambassador triumph, with great performance in the initial 30 minutes, the section of the game in which Millonarios took advantage of three goals.

The 21-year-old shared the band with Elvis Perlaza. In repeated moments he received the ball near the line to look for the duel 1 vs. 1 against Peñarol’s left-back, Juan Manuel Ramos; but when Perlaza gained meters down the flank, he looked for space inside to combine with Mackalister and give the defender the responsibility of generating width.

In Millonarios’ second and third goal, Paredes finished the play on the inside, in the rival area. He was key to the 2-0 partial: after a cue shot that bounced off a defender, he sent the ball that crashed into Hernán Menosse and ended up at the back of the net. Few minutes later, he won the ball near the opposite goal and with his left foot made it 3-0. He was replaced at 89′.

That was his third goal with Millonarios, the first in international competitions. He had already marked Águilas Doradas and Boyacá Chicó in the free-for-all phase of the BetPlay League.

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Millonarios beat Peñarol 3-1 in Bogotá and with two dates to go, they lead -undefeated- Group F of the Copa Sudamericana with 10 units. Their next match in the tournament will be against América Mineiro in Brazil.