Penarol has won Uruguay's top flight more than 50 times in its history and has won the Copa Libertadores five times. This team is a South American giant, and it is also a well-known team in international football. However, this well-known team has become a full-fledged "cash machine" in the Copa Sudamericana.
In the Copa Sudamericana qualifying tournament in March, the team swept Uruguay's River Plate club 4-0 to reach the group stage. The team is in the same group as Brazil's América Mineiro, Colombia's Millionaires, and Defence and Justice from the Argentine League. Among them, the defense and justice won the South American Cup, and the other two teams were average in strength.
However, Penarol quickly entered the losing circle. They lost 4-1 away to América Mineiro in the first round and Mastellani scored twice. With a 4-0 lead in the 68th minute, Penarol only saved some face and avoided hanging zeros.
In the following matches, the team lost back-to-back matches, losing 2-0 to the millionaires, losing 1-7 to Defense and Justice over two legs, and losing 3-1 to the millionaires in the fourth round. After five rounds, they scored only three goals and conceded 16 goals.
The most speechless thing is that Penarol's offensive statistics are not ugly, but the results are not satisfactory. For example, in their 4-1 loss to Defense and Justice, the team shot 23 times but scored only 1 goal. In all five games, the team had 67 shots on goal and 19 shots on target, but only scored 3 goals, which shows how poor the team's strikers are.
As a result, Peñarol became the second worst of all 32 teams in the Copa Sudamericana. Of all the teams that participated in the group stage of this Copa Sudamericana, 4 teams had 0 points after 5 rounds. Penarore's team has a goal difference of thirteen, with the worst being Olient from Group C, one less than them. But Olyant is a Bolivian team, and the team's heritage and history cannot be compared with Penarol.
It is indeed embarrassing that a team that has won many South American championships has now fallen here.
In the final round, they will face América Mineiro in the Brazilian Serie A. Mineiro América, on the other hand, currently has seven points and would have reached 10 points if they beat Penarol. And if the second-place millionaire loses to Defense and Justice, the Brazilian team has a chance to overtake second place. Although Penarol was out early, it was very interesting that he held on to his opponent's qualifying fate.