Ecuadorian forward Enner Valencia’s goals qualified Brazil’s Internacional for the 2023 Copa Libertadores semi-finals, beating Bolivia’s Bolivar 2-0 (3-0 on aggregate) in Porto Alegre this Tuesday.

The author of three goals in the quarter-final series, the Ecuadorian captain was crucial for the ‘colorados gaúchos’ to play their first semi-final of the Libertadores in eight years.

The forward finished off the Bolivians with left-footed shots in the 11th minute and right-footed shots in the 60th minute, causing the full Beira-Rio stadium (49,137 spectators) to explode with joy.

The 33-year-old Ecuadorian scored in a 1-0 win in La Paz last week. And he also scored in the round of 16, where Inter eliminated one of the favorites for the title, Argentina’s River Plate.

“The one we are taking is a very important step, but this does not end here,” he said after making his team the first semi-finalist in the 2023 Libertadores.

Done, he will wait with his teammates for the opponent in the semi-finals, who will emerge as the winner between Olimpia and Fluminense. Paraguayans and Brazilians, who won 2-0 in Rio de Janeiro, meet on Thursday in Asunción.

The Valencia net is living up to expectations stemming from his signing in June with the Porto Alegre side, who are dreaming of winning their third Libertadores, following rebellions in 2006 and 2010.

Argentinian DT Eduardo Coudet kept him as a starter despite the fact that in Brasileirao, where Inter (14th) are closer to relegation than to the top, he remained empty in seven games.

He entrusted him with the center forward position where he is nurtured by people with good feet like Maurici, Wanderson and Alan Patrick.

Wanderson was the one who received the Bolivian defender Bryan Bentaberry badly at the beginning of the duel and executed a quick counterattack.

The midfielder got into the 18 between two opponents, who made it easy for him to pass, before moving the ball to the penalty spot, from where Valencia fired past goalkeeper Carlos Lampe.

The advantage instilled confidence in the part of the Colorados who wanted to bury the Academy led by the Spaniard Beñato San José from the beginning of the game.

The Brazilians formed a solid block in the middle of the field, ready to take advantage of any mistake in Bolívar’s departure, which did not bother the Uruguayan goalkeeper Sergio Rochet, who played a notable role in the previous games.

The home team experienced the biggest discomfort not from the Bolivian artillery, but from the seven minutes of stoppage at the end of the first half.

Uruguayan referee Esteban Ostojich stopped the game in that period because the players of both teams felt the effect of the tear gas that was thrown by the police to control the riots outside the stadium.

In the second half, Inter looked for Lampa’s goal with more ambition. A narrow change of strategy has an early reward, in a cross from Maurici (55) that grazed the goal.

But as fate would have it, Valencia barely shared the evening’s prominence with another red-figured murder figure: Rochet.

The Uruguayan saved a penalty from the Chilean Ronnie Fernández (85) in the last part of the game, a few minutes after the Ecuadorian did his thing again.

This time, before unleashing an unassailable right-hander for Lampe, he latched on to replace Argentina centre-back Nicolás Ferreyra and put Inter on the semi-final bus. (D)