Millonarios dealt a double blow to Nacional: first, in the home run, by achieving an unobjectionable and even short victory at the Atanasio Girardot stadium, in front of 23,053 spectators. And then, the psychological one, three days before they face each other in El Campín, in the first leg of the Colombia Cup final.
The first half was a solo for Millonarios, who managed the rhythms of the game as they wanted, but did not get the advantage they deserved. He was able to score just one goal, in a four-touch play that ended with a long pass from Mackalister Silva and a touch from Daniel Cataño, in the 19th minute.
The team led by Alberto Gamero forgave too much of a Nacional team that, as the minutes passed, fell into despair, attacked without order and left spaces for Millonarios to attack whenever they could.
Silva missed it, one-on-one with goalkeeper Kevin Mier, who also made a brilliant save after a shot from outside the area by Juan Carlos Pereira. And Leonardo Castro also incredibly missed it, who was left in front of the goal to score the second and finished over.
In the second half, Nacional wanted to shake off that dominance and coach Jhon Bodmer took a gamble. He brought out a brand-name midfielder, Jhon Duque, who hit a lot, and put Dorlan Pabón on, and refreshed the wing with the entry of Brahian Palacios for Yair Mena, trying to take advantage of the area of the blue defense that seemed most vulnerable, the left.
At the start of the second stage came Nacional’s best minutes in the match, but, again, without generating any major danger, beyond a save by Montero from a shot by Pabón. And Millonarios, later, began to trace his dominance of the first stage, while reaching the air of Cataño, which was fading.
Gamero’s chess move was, first, to refresh the wings looking for speed: he took out Silva and Cataño and brought in Beckham Castro and Édgar Guerra. And then he reformed the team, putting together a line of three centre-backs, with Jorge Arias next to Llinás and Vargas, who had a brilliant second half.
That move came just when Nacional decided to play with double ‘9’, with the entry of Venezuelan Eric Ramírez for ‘Tatay’ Torres.
Nacional hit a wall and every time Millonarios grabbed the ball the risk of a second goal on a counterattack was enormous. Fernando Uribe even scored from outside the area by hitting Mier, but the play was invalidated with the help of the VAR, due to offside of the attacker, who had entered for Leo Castro.
An attention from the Millonarios medical staff to Montero, after a collision with Edier Ocampo, had stopped the game and for this reason, referee Nicolás Gallo gave ten minutes of replacement. In these instances, as if it were a complete match. And Nacional was about to get the most out of it with a mid-range shot by Ramírez that hit the post.
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