Millionaires could have ended up winning this Saturday at the Atanasio Girardot, but two fouls on the edge of the area sentenced him to a two-goal draw, on the first date of the semifinal home runs of the League.
Alberto Gamero, the Millonarios coach, once again had to rearrange pieces due to casualties. With Óscar Cortés in the Under-20 National Team and with Daniel Cataño, Larry Vásquez, Juan Carlos Pereira and Jáder Valencia injured, the samarium once again gave the youngsters a hand. And they were protagonists.
Millos’ first option, after 10 minutes, was one of those who came from the minor divisions, Luis Andrés Paredes. He dropped a rebound but he didn’t get comfortable and he hit it badly.
But, despite many inaccuracies in the passes, Millonarios saw the goal closer than Medellín in the first half, because every time Medellín wanted to activate their attack, they found Andrés Llinás and Juan Pablo Vargas, who supported the structure and they prevented the ball from reaching danger around goalkeeper Álvaro Montero.
Medellin against Millionaires
Jaiver Nieto. TIME
There were not many options to score. Millionaires hit first, at 42 minutes. Leonardo Castro put in a brilliant cross from the left and the other young player in the attack, Beckham David Castro, touched it with his left foot to beat goalkeeper Andrés Mosquera Marmolejo.
Sebastián Botero, the coach in charge of Medellín (things that a championship system allows in which almost half of the participants arrive with title options starting from scratch after 20 dates), underwent surgery on the payroll at halftime.
Botero disarmed the defense of three, sent Edwuin Cetré from cheek to winger, Daniel Londoño went to mark the left and Jonathan Marulanda entered as right back. Yulián Gómez, the left winger, left the pitch. He changed a creative for a winger (Andrés Ibargüen for Andrés Ricaurte), and moved piece by piece to the subway Daniel Torres for David Loaiza.
The fact of playing with wingers and some necessary fouls by Millonarios gave the DIM the chance to generate danger with free kicks. In one of them it was 1-1, at 8 minutes of the second stage, in an extraordinary cross from Edwuin Cetré and a header from Víctor Moreno, which beat Stiven Vega to the mark.
The tie did not change the idea of Millonarios, who once again had an option with Paredes, with a cross shot that hit a rival. Millos’ partial advantage came from that corner kick, taken by Beckham Castro, in a ball stained red by the dust from the fire extinguishers in the bar, which Jorge Arias put his head in to score 1-2. The left side, due to his past at DIM, did not take advantage of it.
Another foul on the edge of the area gave Medellín the possibility of 2-2, at 24 minutes of the second stage. While everyone was waiting for a strong shot from Andrés Cadavid, Edwuin Cetré surprised by hitting him with a curve and putting it through the post that Montero had to cover, compromised in the goal.
Medellin against Millionaires
Jaiver Nieto. TIME
Gamero barely came to refresh the team six minutes after Cetré’s goal. Paredes and Leo Castro left and Édgar Guerra and Fernando Uribe entered.
After the draw, the game fell into friction and there were very few. Medellín got into the Millonarios field and the visitors bet on playing long and looking for a counterattack. And to complete, the goalkeeper Andrés Mosquera, from the local, was injured and appeared for a long time making a save like that. Millos never tried it… He came to attack in the replacement, when Luis Vásquez had already entered.
Millonarios begins with a draw that could have been a victory and Medellín, which continues to make the mistakes that made it suffer in the campaign, had to resign itself.
Jose Orlando Ascencio
sports deputy editor
@josasc