DOHA, Qatar (Reuters) -Mexican side Pachuca stunned Copa Libertadores champions Botafogo 3-0 on Wednesday to advance to the Intercontinental Cup semi-finals thanks to second-half goals from Oussama Idrissi, Nelson Deossa and Salomon Rondon.
Pachuca will face Egypt’s Al-Ahly on Saturday for a chance to play against Champions League holders Real Madrid in next week’s final.
Following a near 20-hour trip from Rio de Janeiro to Doha and playing less than three days after clinching the Brazilian league title, Botafogo manager Artur Jorge rested several key players from the start and his exhausted side were a shadow of the dominant force that took South American football by storm in 2024.
Playing their fifth game in a third different country in a little over two weeks, coach Jorge made five changes to the team that beat Atletico Mineiro 3-1 in the Copa Libertadores final in Buenos Aires 10 days ago. Pachuca had not played a competitive match for 31 days, following their elimination from Mexico’s Apertura competition.
Botafogo controlled possession throughout the game but were wasteful, missing too many chances and they ended up being punished when Idrissi brilliantly dribbled past three players on his way into the box before firing home from close range in the 50th minute.
Coach Jorge made three changes in the 55th minute, bringing on captain Marlon Freitas, Argentinian forward Thiago Almada and Copa Libertadores top-scorer Junior Santos in an effort to give his side the spark they were clearly lacking, but a mistake by Botafogo’s defence gifted Deossa the second goal in the 66th minute.
With the Brazilian side trying desperately to get back in the game, Pachuca clinically made the most of a quick counter-attack, with Rondon finding the net in the 80th minute to wrap up victory for the CONCACAF champions.
“To step on the pitch a little over 24 hours after arriving in a new country following a long trip, the jet-lag, in addition to the relentless calendar is frustrating but it’s something we can’t control as a team. We didn’t play well and that’s a hard pill to swallow,” Jorge told a press conference.
“I’m not going to try to make excuses for what we didn’t manage to do. Pachuca were better than us, they were more effective, they took advantage of the chances they had in the second half. But the facts are that because of the situation we were facing, we couldn’t field the team we would like to today.
“There’s nothing else to say about the context, because we have to hold on to the result. The result wasn’t what we wanted, but nothing erases what we’ve done so well this season.”
(Reporting by Fernando Kallas in MadridEditing by Toby Davis)
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