Wednesday, April 19th 2006

Group 6

Internacional 4 – 0 Maracaibo

Porto Alegre’s Internacional crushed upstart UA Maracaibo 4-0 to secure the top spot in the group and eliminate the Venezuelans from the Copa Libertadores.

Adriano nailed a rebound from the outside in the 35th minute for the first half’s only score. In a nine-minute span of the second half, however, Internacional put on a clinic as el Colorado burned the Venezuelan nets three times.

Bolivar Guedes nailed a header in the 77th; Michel (83) and Colombian Wason Renteria (85) helped each other out in their respective scores.

UNAM 1 – 1 Nacional

Uruguay’s Nacional could only pull out a 1-1 draw at Pumas but got a huge break when Internacional hammered Maracaibo 4-0 to send the Venezuelans home on Wednesday as Group 6 came to a close.

Jorge Martinez stroked a soft rebound off a Sergio Bernal mishandled save in the 80th minute to assure el Decano a spot in the final 16 as they edged Maracaibo by a single point in the group.

Final Group 6 standings:

Internacional (Brazil) 6 games, 14 pts.
Nacional (Uruguay) 6 games, 9 pts.
UA Maracaibo (Venezuela) 6 games, 8 pts.
UNAM (Mexico) 6 games, 1 pts.

Group 5

Velez Sarsfield 2 – 2 LDU Quito

The two sides that won Group 5, Velez and LDU, played to a meaningless 2 – 2 Copa Libertadores draw to close out their group stage of the competition Wednesday.

Both teams traded goals as Patricio Urrutia scored in the 31st minute for the Albos; then Sebastian Ereros hit for el Portin in the 56th.

The next two goals came from Roberto Palacios of LDU in the 58th and Emanuel Centurion of Velez capped the equalizer in the 60th with a penalty.

Velez, along with Internacional, are the only teams to close out their groups undefeated.

Universitario 1 – 1 Rocha FC

In a match symbolic of how these teams played in the Copa Libertadores, both eliminated teams played a lackluster 1-1 draw to close out their 2006 participations in the tournament Wednesday.

Alex Jaime scored for the Peruvians in the 62nd and Jose Cardozo tied it for the Uruguay squad in the 76th.

Final Group 5 standings:

Velez Sarsfield (Argentina) – 6 games, 16 pts.
LDU Quito (Ecuador) – 6 games, 10 pts.
Rocha FC (Uruguay) – 6 games, 5 pts.
Universitario (Peru) – 6 games, 2 pts.

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