The National Athletic won his fifth title of the Colombia Cup although lose 1-0 in his visit to Deportivo Pereira in the second leg of the final and will play the 2022 Copa Libertadores.
The Medellín team arrived this Wednesday at the match played at the Hernán Ramírez Villegas stadium with a wide difference after having won the first leg 5-0 and today, despite the fact that he fell with a rival who was playing his first final, he managed to lift the title. With such a wide lead for the visitors on the aggregate scoreboard, the hosts maintained order in the opening minutes and, contrary to what they have shown in most games this year, the team was cautious and fell back. However, the ‘Verdolagas’ began to develop football with Jarlan Barrera and Andrés ‘El Rifle’ Andrade, who had the first clear of his team with a shot from the edge of the area that brushed the horizontal of Santiago Castaño’s goal.
Alejandro Restrepo’s team continued to attack and had several more scoring opportunities, with shots from striker Jefferson Duque and Barrera. Meanwhile, Pereira appealed to the counterattack and tried to do damage with the speed of their forwards: Fabio Burbano, Ever Valencia and Brayan León without much success.
In the second half, those led by Alexis Márquez decided to take risks and began to hurt Atlético Nacional with their high pressure, in which midfielders Carlos Garcés and Jherson Mosquera began to be key. Thus, the hosts had scoring opportunities, which ended without celebration due to the performance of the goalkeeper Aldair Quintana and the lack of aim, while the ‘Verdolagas’ looked for the fast Dorlan Pablón in the counterattack, who ran into a good performance from the centrals Danny Cano and Carlos Ramírez. However, the clearest opportunity of the match came at minute 77 when Pabón took out the cannon and sent a shot that crashed into Castaño’s left post. On the rebound, Uruguayan Jonatan Álvez, who entered in the second half, took a shot that was blocked by the local goalkeeper.
When it seemed that the score was going to end in a tie to zero, Pereira opened the scoring with a corner kick headed by Wilfrido de la Rosa and, from the ground, finished off by central Ramírez to celebrate the crowd that arrived at the Hernán Ramírez Villegas stadium. However, referee Nicolás Gallo whistled the end of the game and those who celebrated were the Atlético Nacional footballers, who revalidated their favoritism and won a title after three years of drought.
