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This weekend the four semifinalists of Colombian soccer were ready: Equidad, América, Santa Fe and Junior. Curiously, three of them qualified as visitors, expulsions abounded thanks to VAR, goals were not lacking and, as always, controversies were not lacking.
FUTBOLRED presents the highlights of the second leg of the League quarterfinals.
The good
– Santa Fe: The cardinal team beat the one in Bogotá, advanced to the semifinals as a great favorite and leads the reclassification. As if that were not enough, Velásquez scored a double and scored the 1,000 goal from Santa Fe in short tournaments.
– Equity, pleasant surprise: Those of Alexis García are the great “stick” of the championship. They got in at eight on the last date, they did not win in Bogotá and when everything seemed against them, they hit the hit in Palmaseca thanks to an accurate Matías Mier.
– Striking scorers: The fight for the Golden Boot is vibrant. Mier scored a goal with Equidad and reached ten scores, Borja responded with a score against Tolima and is leading the scorers table with 13. He fights red-hot.
– Junior, undefeated: Luis Amaranto Perea’s men reached the quarterfinals with more certainties than doubts, in addition to staying in an international tournament. Well, they won the second of the championship at home and abroad. Remarkable.
The bad
– Large number of expulsions: Of the four games that there were, only one was saved from the red cards. Two pitches per game. Velasco and Mahecha in Cali vs Equidad, Murillo and Jaramillo in Nacional vs América and Balanta with Gordillo in Tolima vs Junior.
– Classic full of absences: The match between America and Nacional had a large number of casualties due to contagions by covid-19, suspensions and controversial technical decisions. Such was the thing that the purslane had only three footballers on the substitute bench.
– Visitors to power: The locality had little or no influence on the return. Three of the classified teams ensured their pass to the semifinals away from home: América thrashed at Atanasio, Equidad took Palmaseca and Junior did not tremble on Techo.
– Disappointing Tolima: Hernán Torres’ men led practically the entire tournament, but lost the last two free-for-all games and gave up the lead. In the quarterfinals things did not improve, they lost the first leg in Barranquilla and the second leg in Bogotá 0-1.
The ugly
– Blackout in Palmaseca: Just after 21 minutes of the Cali vs Equidad game, the stadium lights failed and the game had to be stopped. The problem is that the stop lasted more than 17 minutes!
– Mess between Tolima and Junior to play in Bogotá: Three days before the return game was played, Tolima informed that he would play at Techo (Bogotá). Junior managers strongly criticized the decision and threatened not to present the team. Finally, everything was resolved with a charter flight (roundtrip) from Dimayor to the Barranquilla club.