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Bizarre red card marks Fluminense's Copa Sudamericana victory [Fri Sep 16th, 2005]
Rio de Janeiro (Reuters) - Fluminense, playing their first competitive match against foreign opposition for 20 years, came from behind to beat Banfield 3-1 in the Copa Sudamericana despite a bizarre first half sending-off.
'Flu' played more than one hour of the second round first leg tie with 10 men after midfielder Leandro was twice booked, for climbing onto the fence to celebrate the first goal and then for diving in the penalty area.
The Argentine visitors went ahead after 12 minutes on a wet evening in Rio de Janeiro when Jesus Datolo, unmarked at the far post, fired past Kleber.
Leandro replied a minute later when he finished off a move started by Serb midfielder Dejan Petkovic, but then got carried away in the celebrations as he climbed the fence around the pitch to celebrate with Fluminense fans.
In the 27th minute, Leandro fell theatrically in the penalty area and was booked again by Bolivian referee Rene Ortube, who followed the second yellow with a red.
Despite this, striker Tuta added two more second-half goals for Fluminense, whose last international outing was in the more glamorous Copa Libertadores in 1985.
This round also threw up two more Brazil-Argentina clashes in the competition, which is the region's equivalent of Europe's UEFA Cup.
In Sao Paulo, Corinthians, resting most of their top players, were held to a dire goalless draw by River Plate in front of just over 6,000 fans, their lowest home gate this year.
The other tie went to Argentina, as Velez Sarsfield beat Cruzeiro 2-0 in Buenos Aires with two first half goals from striker Lucas Castroman.
Castroman burst clear of a static Cruzeiro defence and fired an angled shot past Arthur to open the scoring in the 27th minute. Seven minutes later, he scored from a rebound after his first attempt was blocked by the Cruzeiro goalkeeper.
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