Millonarios almost eliminated and revived at the end: key victory against Pasto

They won comfortably, suffered more than necessary due to a wrong change and in the end, Millonarios got back into the race for classification, with a 2-3 away victory against Pasto. Although today he is outside the eight, it depends on himself because of the calendar.

Millonarios took the game with all the seriousness of the case, with the best roster available, including the returns of Andrés Llinás and Larry Vásquez. He knew that the results of Friday and Saturday (1-1 in the Valle del Cauca classic and Junior's draw against Envigado in Barranquilla) would put him back in the race if he won in Pasto.

It was an atypical match. The mobile unit carrying the VAR teams did not arrive in Pasto and the Bismarks Santiago central defender had to defend himself the old-fashioned way, with whatever his linesmen could help him with.

At the beginning of the game, Millonarios had the ball, but not the options. Until a key moment came, which changed everything. First, Daniel Cataño only missed one called goal (he threw the ball over, with the feeling that he had hit the goal supports).

And then, at 24 minutes, Cataño made up for the mistake with a tremendous deep pass to leave Leonardo Castro facing the goal. The blue scorer had time to dribble past goalkeeper Marco Espíndola before scoring the 0-1 score. Pasto was left claiming an offside that did not exist.

The goal against woke up Deportivo Pasto and, with the help of a young man named Gustavo Charrupí, with only five games in the first division, he began to reach out and demand goalkeeper Álvaro Montero.

An action that is becoming a trademark of the house, the aerial ball, gave Millonarios the second goal of the game, in the 53rd minute. when Juan Pablo Vargas finished with a header, with his back to the goal, after a free kick by Daniel Ruiz.

Pasto made Millonarios suffer for half an hour

Millonarios already wanted to secure the advantage by having the ball and so, coach Alberto Gamero took out Castro and disrupted the pair of attackers to reinforce the midfield with Juan Carlos Pereira. But that took away control of the game.

Pasto had already threatened to do damage on the wings and full-back Cristian Mafla received a deep pass from Diego Chávez and then threw a cross that Santiago Tréllez took advantage of well to score a goal, at 21 in the second stage.

Millonarios was left reeling. Gamero took out Daniel Cataño after 1-2 and brought in Rivaldo Rodríguez. The visitor didn't even see the ball anymore. And Tréllez scored again to tie the game, diving between Llinás and Alfonzo, to receive a ball from Cristian Arrieta, who hit him badly thinking about scoring a goal and ended up getting an assist.

The blue coach tried to rearrange the team to see if he could keep the ball in some way, after the failure of the idea of ​​​​playing with three first-line midfielders. Vásquez, Giordana and Alfonzo left and Beckham Castro, Sander Navarro and Juan Esteban Carvajal entered.

Once again in a set piece play, Millonarios found the advantage: after a series of rebounds, Vargas took a rebound in the large area and sent it angrily to the back of the goal, in the 88th minute, after a backward touch by Andrés Llinás. Those from Millos celebrated it as a relief.

Millonarios reached 22 points and now has entry to eight in their own hands, if they beat Junior on Wednesday in Bogotá. With suffering, the blues now depend on themselves.

Jose Orlando Ascencio

Sports Deputy Editor

@josasc

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