Nacional Asunción kept their unbeaten run alive with a 2-0 win over Sportivo Luqueño at the Estadio Arsenio Erico, moving to four points from three matches in the Clausura. C.R. Santa opened the scoring early on, and H.A. Benitez sealed it late to give the hosts their first victory of the season.
Santa made the difference in the twelfth minute, and here's the thing — the home side never got out of second gear after that. They controlled the tempo, wore the visitors down, and by then Luqueño were simply reacting rather than dictating. Benitez doubled the lead in the eighty-sixth minute, and the result felt earned rather than lucky.
There were plenty of changes on both sides. Santa came off in the thirty-third minute, Ruiz and Maiz were brought on together at the break, and Cantero and Comas replaced each other shortly after the hour. Luqueño turned to Meza and Gaona Lugo in the seventy-third, while Ojeda came on for the hosts before the end. Benitez was substituted himself in the eighty-eighth, with Jara stepping in.
The statistics tell a story that doesn't always match the eye test. Both sides had equal possession at fifty percent, but Nacional were far more clinical. They registered eight shots on target against three for the visitors, and their accuracy of fifty-seven percent left Luqueño's twenty-five percent looking thin. Eighty-six attacks to one hundred and nine doesn't mean much when you're not converting.
Yellow cards found Diaz in the sixtieth, Cardozo Lucena in the sixty-second, and Maldonado in the seventy-first — nothing that changed the match, just the rhythm. Nacional now sit fifth with four points, one ahead of Luqueño in tenth. Three games in, and the gap between them is still small, but this one showed who wanted it more.
