There was to be no scare or upset when Grêmio welcomed Guaraní for the round of 16 second leg of the Libertadores. Tricolor already had a 2-0 lead from the first leg and they recorded yet another 2-0 victory at the Arena on Thursday night to advance in the Libertadores via a convincing 4-0 aggregate.
The game was initially delayed for 10 minutes after there was a clash of jerseys and Guaraní were even forced to change their strip color.
The game itself took to live almost immediately. Ferreira opened the scoring for Grêmio early on in the third minute. Jean Pyerre found Bruno Cortez on the left flank and the defender sent in a square ball into the box for Ferreira to fire home. The goal was initially cancelled but a VAR review saw and confirmed that Bruno Cortez was actually onside when he received the pass from Jean.
Grêmio were never really troubled and were the dominant side all game. However, they suffered the only gloom of the night when Jean Pyerre asked to be taken off after feeling a pain in his thigh. There was disappointment in the player’s face and that of manager Renato Portaluppi.
The second half still saw Grêmio dominate proceedings and they even had a goal from Isaque ruled out by VAR due to offside. It even got worse for the away side when Benitez was dismissed two minutes from time. In the final minutes of the game, Rodrigues added the second for Grêmio to seal the win in convincing style.
Brazilian sides Grêmio and Santos will face off for the quarterfinals of the Libertadores in the next two weeks with the schedule set to be confirmed by Conmebol.
