Zampedri's header rescues Católica in Sausalito and moves them into second in the Libertadores race

A header in the 34th minute was all it took for Universidad Católica to walk away from Sausalito with all three points. The man behind it, who else, Fernando Zampedri, the striker who has become the Cruzados' insurance policy whenever the team can't find its best version.

Let's not sugarcoat it: neither Católica nor Everton were sharp in the first half. It was a stuck, cagey opening, more intent than clarity, one of those matches where nobody seems willing to make a mistake and in the end nobody does much of anything. But right in the middle of that aimless back and forth, Zampedri rose higher than everyone else and beat Ignacio González with a header that ended up being the only real difference of the afternoon.

Did Everton deserve more out of that first half? Hard to make that case. The home side, which had shown better form in previous matchdays, couldn't even look like itself. Alex Medina, its most decisive player, didn't produce a single play that troubled the visiting goal. So if we're talking about fairness, Católica's goal ended up feeling like an almost logical punishment for a shapeless Everton.

In the second half the match changed complexion. Walter Ribonetto shuffled his bench, brought on fresh legs, and his team started controlling the ball more, pushing more insistently toward the opposing box. But pushing forward isn't the same as truly threatening, and that was the difference. Everton had the possession; what it lacked was precisely a Zampedri of its own, someone capable of settling things in the box when a match gets locked up.

Católica, calm and professional, managed the lead without any scares until the final whistle and walked away with a win that counts double given the opponent and the setting.

An uneven campaign eyeing the Libertadores

Universidad Católica's run in the 2026 Liga de Primera has been anything but a straight line. There have been good stretches and others best forgotten. But the underlying goal remains intact: finish among the spots that grant direct qualification to the group stage of the 2027 Copa Libertadores through the so called "Chile 2" berth.

To get there, the bare minimum is finishing second. And with this win in Sausalito, corresponding to matchday 22 of the tournament, the Cruzados settle into exactly that spot, leapfrogging a direct rival in that race along the way. It's not that Católica is playing its best soccer of the season. It's that it has something almost no other team in the league can claim: a striker who can win a match on his own, even when the rest of the team never quite shows up. That, more than anything else, sums up what happened in Viña del Mar.