The 3-1 puts Verdolaga in an unbeatable position to become champion of the Apertura
Candelo, Banguero and Andrade scored for the home team, while Anderson Plata scored for Vinotinto and Oro
Atlético Nacional defeated Deportes Tolima 3-1 on Wednesday with a great goal from the center of the field by winger Yerson Candelo, in the first leg of the final of the Opening Tournament, which will be defined in Ibagué next Sunday. In addition to Candelo’s goal, the Verdolaga team equalized with a goal from their other side, Danovis Banguero, and defined the match in the last minute with a goal from Andrés ‘el Rifle’ Andrade, while the Vinotinto y Oro had left ahead with a goal from winger Anderson Plata at the Atanasio Girardot stadium in Medellín.
The visiting coach, Hernán Torres, proposed an approach in which his team looked orderly in defense and tried to take advantage of the spaces left by his rival to counterattack. Although he was comfortable in the opening minutes, the first clear one was for the purslane in a great collective play in the 19th minute in which midfielder Yeison Guzmán went hand in hand with Ecuadorian goalkeeper Alexander Domínguez, who saved the goal with a slap. goal.
However, Tolima was the one that opened the scoring in the 22nd minute when creative Daniel Cataño sent a cross from a corner kick that wandered through the area and hit Tolima in the stomach. Silverwho was alone in front of the goal of a Kevin Mier who could not do anything to avoid scoring.
The hosts, tangled up against a rival who was very well defended, only managed to get closer with individual plays by players like Dorlan Pabón, who almost scored in the 33rd minute with a long-distance shot that skimmed the horizontal. On the next play, the visitors were about to equalize in a counterattack from Plata that finished off, hand in hand, with Mier who managed to stop the ball.
When it seemed that the first half was going to end 0-1, Candelo took out a very strong shot that Domínguez stopped, but the rebound fell to Banguerowho celebrated the equalizer against his former team in the 43rd minute.
In the second half, Atlético Nacional became more dangerous with the entry of Andrade, but the first clear one was for Tolima in a counterattack in which striker Michael Rangel took a shot that he took with a Mier save. The game got tangled up, but the goal came from candlestick. The side stole the ball in his own field, 58 meters from the rival goal, from the Venezuelan Yohandry Orozco, he saw Domínguez gone and without thinking twice he took a right shot with which he surpassed the Ecuadorian goalkeeper, who could not reach the ball and He had to get it out of the bottom of the goal.
Yerson Candelo’s GREAT GOAL from behind the middle of the pitch for Atlético Nacional’s partial 2-1 win over Deportes Tolima in the first leg of the Colombian Apertura final.pic.twitter.com/GFWMC5jte3
– Bastián Alonso ⚽ (@BALONso__) June 23, 2022
After the goal, the visiting team tried to attack but ran into a well-organized opponent and a decisive Mier, who again took another clear chance before the match ended. One of the last plays, a counterattack that started with a quick serve from Mier, ended with a goal from Andradewho crossed the ball to goalkeeper Domínguez in the one-on-one and got the more than 40,000 fans who filled the Atanasio Girardot stands to celebrate.
Los Verdolagas, led by Hernán Darío ‘el Arriero’ Herrera, will try to maintain the advantage on Sunday in Ibagué with the aim of achieving their seventeenth title in the Colombian league, while Vinotinto y Oro aspires to come back to lift their fourth trophy.
