Marked for Abel Hernández
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match19 Aug 2026
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Gonzalo Gelini obliged against Salus. 6‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Penarol.
Squad24 Aug 2026
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The match ball belongs to Gonzalo Gelini, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
At 36 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 9.67, and nobody on the pitch better.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Leonel Jaime, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.58
A mark of 8.58 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market24 Aug 2026
Real Murcia come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Penarol did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Match22 Aug 2026
Penarol make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Penarol have 3 straight wins of it.
Match19 Aug 2026
7 goals as Penarol and Salus go for it
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Penarol and Salus, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Market24 Aug 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mauricio Lemos wants continental football; whether Penarol can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match15 Aug 2026
Cerro will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Penarol were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
7.72, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Penarol
Lucas Ferreira and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Penarol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jesús Trindade is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
7.79, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Penarol had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 3‑0, already talking about the next one.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The one goal every signing is asked about until it comes. It has come, and a press-conference question has been retired.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market3 Aug 2026
Penarol say no — this time
The offer from Sturm Graz for Matías Arezo was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Abel Hernández and Penarol agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Abel Hernández was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market3 Aug 2026
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Penarol can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Match1 Aug 2026
Juventud made Penarol work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.10 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Jesús Trindade falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Penarol
12 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Sergio Valverde kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.