Montevideo City Torque knocks out Tigre with a Salomon Rodriguez brace

Montevideo City Torque beat 2-1 Tigre at the Estadio Centenario, in a match corresponding to the Round of 16 of the Copa Sudamericana in which the Uruguayan side wrapped up the tie's overall conquest, having also won 1-0 away in Victoria in the first leg. Tonight's result confirms a clean sweep for the home team over the Argentine club in this knockout tie.

A dizzying first half

The match was calm until the closing stretch of the first half, when everything was decided in just ten minutes. In the 38th minute, Salomon Rodriguez put Montevideo City Torque ahead with a left-footed strike from the center of the box, off a cross from Franco Pizzichillo. Tigre's response came immediately: two minutes later, in the 40th minute, Valentin Moreno equalized with a point-blank shot that found the top left corner.

The tie lasted only briefly for the Argentine side. In the 42nd minute, the referee awarded a penalty to the home side after a foul by Nahuel Banegas on Franco Pizzichillo inside the box, a call confirmed by VAR. Right at the start of the second half, in first-half stoppage time, Salomon Rodriguez scored his second goal of the night by converting the penalty in the 48th minute, making it 2-1, a score that would hold. Before that, there was a confusing episode: Nahuel Banegas was shown a red card for fighting in the 46th minute, but the decision was overturned after a VAR review and the Tigre defender stayed on the field.

The second half cooled off in terms of scoring chances. Tigre created opportunities through Ignacio Russo, Santiago Gonzalez and Jalil Elias, while Montevideo City Torque answered with attempts from Esteban Obregon, Gonzalo Montes and Diogo Guzman, but no shot beat either goalkeeper again.

The numbers behind the match

The stats show Tigre dominated possession and overall volume of play, though it wasn't enough to flip the result.

According to our own estimate calculated from the shots taken in the match, Montevideo City Torque generated 1.35 expected goals against 1.19 for Tigre, a razor-thin gap that confirms just how even the contest was despite the favorable result for the home side, who were more clinical in front of goal.

What the preview said

Ahead of this match, our model had projected a 44% chance of victory for Montevideo City Torque, a 30% chance of a draw and a 26% chance of a Tigre win, with expected goals of 1.38 for the home side and 1 for the visitors, for an estimated total of 2.38. The outcome ended up matching that forecast: the favorite won, and the final score of 2-1 landed close to the projected total number of goals.

Takeaways from the match

Montevideo City Torque sealed its progress in this round of the Copa Sudamericana thanks to a brace from Salomon Rodriguez, the undisputed man of the match, who delivered both from open play and from the penalty spot. For Tigre, elimination comes despite being the team with more possession, more shots and more corners, a reminder that soccer doesn't always reward whoever controls the ball the most. The overturned red card shown to Nahuel Banegas will also stand out as one of the talking points from a tie that had a bit of everything in barely an hour of intense soccer.