Leonel Jaime after Peñarol's win over Albion: "It was a correct match, not a good one"

Winning 3-1 at the Estadio Centenario doesn't always send a locker room home happy. Leonel Jaime, at least, struggled to find a big word for the performance. He settled on something more modest, almost routine: correct. With that win over Albion in the 2026 Clausura Tournament, Peñarol got to breathe easy again after an odd weekend, against an awkward opponent, with Jaime himself scoring a goal he's starting to get used to celebrating in Uruguayan soccer.

The Manya came out on top with goals from Jaime himself (his second goal since arriving in Uruguay), from Lucas Ferreira and from Nicolás "Indio" Fernández. Nothing too flashy, according to the forward, who spoke to reporters in the mixed zone: it was a plan they'd worked on all week, waiting for Albion to slip up while playing out from the back.

It was a correct match. Not a good one, but correct. That's how we set it up during the week and I think it worked out well. We knew Albion never just hoofed it away, that they liked to play with the ball at their feet, and we were waiting for them to make a mistakeLeonel Jaime

Jaime got even more specific about the tactical idea they'd worked on all week: a high press designed precisely to force that mistake. "During the week we worked really hard on this match, on that high block. We knew they were going to make a mistake at some point, they did, and we made them pay," he explained.

The derby is behind them, the title is ahead

The obvious question was how Peñarol managed to bounce back after the derby loss to Nacional, following it up with wins over Danubio and now Albion. Jaime didn't dance around the answer: that game is history now.

The derby is over, it's behind us. Yes, it was a match we needed to win, but now we're focused on the goal, which is being championsLeonel Jaime

That's the key to why the team didn't dwell on the loss: the big goal is still intact, and there's no time to keep looking backward.

The partnership with Umpiérrez and Arezo's role

Another topic running through Jaime's current form is the new attacking partnership. With Leandro Umpiérrez starting in recent matches ahead of Abel Hernández, and with Matías Arezo also up top, the young forward who came through River's academy has found a setup that's starting to take some of the marking pressure off him.

"Lea takes defenders off me too, because either I get marked by two, or one marks Lea and another marks me. But he takes pressure off me; with Lea and with Mati up front we're clicking well," he said. He's already thinking ahead, expecting opponents to keep marking him closely: "We're going to try to get used to playing like this, because from here on it looks like that's how it'll be. So when I need to play it one touch, I'll play it one touch, and when I need two touches, I'll take two."

A kiss for Messi

The conversation didn't stay on soccer alone. Asked about Lionel Messi's retirement from the Argentina national team, Jaime grew visibly emotional.

That one hurt. It hurt a lot, but he already gave us so much, he gave us everything he possibly could with the national team. So, a kiss to that beastLeonel Jaime

Between the goal, the attacking partnership starting to click, and that heartfelt farewell to Messi, Jaime gave reporters a lot more than just a summary of a "correct" match.