Paranaense, Junior in hard fought draw

Brazil's Atletico Paranaense achieved a valuable 1-1 draw against Colombia's Junior F.C. which missed a penalty in the second half and lost the opportunity to take the lead in the Leg 1 final of the Copa Sudamericana.

In the first half on Wednesday, despite Luis Diaz's outstanding performance, Junior still had many difficulties in breaking the Atletico defence led by the central defenders Thiago Heleno and Leo Pereira, reports Efe.

During the second half, Atletico opened the scoring in the 51st minute with a precise counterattack started by Nikao and defined by Pablo Felipe Teixeira, making it his fourth goal of the tournament.

However, only two minutes later Junior equalled the score with a shot from Yony Gonzalez that went straight past Atletico goalkeeper Santos.

With 20 minutes to go, referee Diego Haro awarded a penalty to Junior after forward Roni knocked down Marlon Piedrahita in the area.

However, Junior's Rafael Perez missed to score with the penalty shot against the Brazilians.

In the end neither team managed to take a lead and will go on to the Leg 2 match to be played on Dec. 12 in the Arena da Baixada Stadium in Curitiba, Brazil.

--IANS

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