Peres-Celedon secured a 1-0 victory over Cartagineños in the Apertura round two of the Primera División on 4 August 2026. The result lifts the hosts off the bottom half of the table while the visitors remain in second place despite the setback. J. Alvarado opened the scoring in the 26th minute and that proved to be the decisive moment.
The match settled into a pattern where Cartagineños controlled territory but Peres-Celedon looked sharper in transition. L. Hernandez collected a yellow card for the hosts in the 67th minute and the incident went to review, though no further action was taken at that stage. By then the visitors had accumulated four yellows between them, which told you something about the tempo.
And here's the thing — the statistics don't always capture what matters. Cartagineños enjoyed 55 per cent possession and registered seven shots on target compared to five for the hosts. Yet they worked 110 attacks to 95 without finding the net. The accuracy figures tell the story: 0.35 for the visitors against 0.45 for Peres-Celedon.
To be fair, the hosts carried the side in the final quarter despite L. Hernandez receiving his second yellow and a red card in the 90th+3 minute. The substitution pattern shows both managers trying to shift momentum — H. Martinez, M. Angulo, B. Alfaro and A. Porras all came on for the hosts, while the visitors brought on R. Cordero in the 78th minute. The red card forced Peres-Celedon to see the game out with ten men.
The hosts sit eighth with eight points from seven games, having lost three of their last five. Cartagineños remain second with fifteen points, though they have now dropped from an unbeaten run. Cup football has its own rules, but this is the league and the gap between the sides has narrowed.