Bolivar beat The Strongest 4:2 in the Professional Division Cup Group Stage - 2 on Saturday evening. The hosts took control early, scoring three times in the opening quarter, before The Strongest fought back to level the scores before Bolivar's late winner. And here's the thing — you could watch the whole match and still miss what decided it.
E. Saavedra opened the scoring in the third minute, then J. Arrascaita doubled the lead just sixty seconds later. D. Romero added a penalty in the fourteenth, putting Bolivar firmly in charge. By then The Strongest had barely touched the ball in the box. L. L. Chavez Cruz pulled one back in the twenty-fourth, giving his side something to hold onto.
The Strongest came alive after the break. R. Castro came on in the forty-sixth and the side pressed forward. C. Sejas equalised in the fifty-first, and suddenly the game was balanced again. Three substitutions in the fifty-eighth — D. Lom, C. Ventura, W. Saucedo — showed they wanted to go for more. To be fair, they deserved their momentum.
The statistics tell a different story from the result. The Strongest had 119 attacks to Bolivar's 57, and 56 per cent possession against 44. Yet Bolivar took seven shots on target with 54 per cent accuracy, while The Strongest managed six with 46 per cent. By then the result was already decided — the visitors had the ball but not the edge.
G. Sotomayor scored the winner in the eighty-seventh minute, and Bolivar held on through two substitutions in the eighty-fifth. The win extends Bolivar's recent form — they had beaten ABB 4:1 and Real Oruro 4:2 in their previous two matches. The Strongest's run of three straight victories ended here, after their 3:0 win over Bullo-Bullo.
Two yellow cards were shown — E. Vaca Moreno in the forty-second and J. Arrascaita in the sixtieth. Neither side lost a player. Bolivar's three-goal cushion in the first half proved enough, even though The Strongest dominated possession and created more attacks throughout the match.