Overview
- Cienciano produced a 6-1 victory over Botafogo at the Estadio Inca Garcilaso, a result that gave the Peruvian club a five-goal advantage ahead of the return leg in Rio de Janeiro.
- Matías Succar scored a hat-trick in the match while Marcos Martinich and Neri Bandiera also found the net, helping Cienciano reach 15 goals in six Sudamericana games.
- Four Cienciano players — Succar, Bandiera, Martinich and Alejandro Hohberg — were named to CONMEBOL’s team of the round after the performance.
- Horacio Melgarejo, the Argentine coach credited for the run, remains under a one-year suspension and fine issued by the Peruvian federation’s disciplinary commission and has lodged an appeal.
- Domestic form contrasts with the continental surge: Cienciano sit low in the Torneo Clausura yet high in the season-long accumulated table, and national-team attention has grown as Peru prepares September friendlies to test options.