Last night, Millonarios beat Junior 1-0 with a goal by Richard Celis in stoppage time. Beyond the victory, the team's performance was discussed, because in several passages they were defeated by the Barranquillero team, whose proposal, although firm, did not reach them in the end. From the outset, those led by Alberto Gamero sought to impose their style and ensure respect for their status as locals, but those led by Juan Cruz Real proposed a defensive block to avoid leaving spaces in the background and thus countering the ambassadors' attack.
The sharks had Carmelo Valencia, former Millonarios, as the starting striker, but given the player's little participation, at the start of the second half, he would be replaced by Miguel Ángel Borja, who returned from the Colombia National Team after failing to qualify for the World Cup repechage in Qatar. Junior was quite loose during some fragments of the match. The clearest choice during the first half was through the air game.
In the second half, Millonarios was better positioned. Eduardo Sosa took advantage of a ball that was left on the rebound and pulled a shot that was saved by Sebastián Viera. The Uruguayan goalkeeper was important at various points in the match. The blues bet everything on the ball still and in a play that starts from the corner kick, for very little, Jáder Valencia scores what would have been the goal of the year in the league, throwing himself scissors towards the ball after a good pass by Daniel Ruíz. The shot hit the face of a defender.
Gamero sends Venezuelan Celis to the court, instead of David Macálister Silva, which allowed the team to increase its speed, advancing its lines. Valencia was replaced by Diego Herazo, who had a clear choice as soon as he entered, arriving in advance to the Junior goal. The shot went over the crossbar. In the 85th minute, Junior almost scored the first, through Borja, who ends up crashing the ball into the stick. In the 92nd minute, after a corner kick taken by Ruíz, the ball bounces in the center of the box and Celis takes advantage of the opportunity to score the winning goal.
After the match, the coach of the ambassadors congratulated his team for the patience with which he took the final stretch of the game and was self-critical of what needs to be improved for the next matches. “We knew that Junior would propose a game like this. It was much more difficult for us with a midfielder and two interiors, they blocked half of us with that additional mixed steering wheel. We weren't clear with the ball. Junior blocked spaces and we didn't find clarity. In the second half we had Macálister and Sosa a little more centralized behind the midfielder's back, because they were throwing themselves at my sides. They already got clearer. We knew they would have a block and it was going to cost us because it is a good team. I liked that we always had the initiative, we wanted to attack and we knew that we were going to be hit back with the extremes, but we controlled them. In the first half there were no clear arrivals, for the second we analyzed the match, it was not clear and we won it with a quiet ball, we worked on it in the week with many variants. We had 11-12 corner kicks, I think,” he said.
Regarding the variants, he commented: “I can't despair because if I want clarity and I don't have it, I have to look for variants: Sosa on the left, Ruíz on the right. I try to vary with themselves on the court. Already in the second half we realize not to arrive in half but with speed on the outside. Already with that Sosa felt calmer in the middle. We're not going to despair, I was telling my assistant. It crossed my mind to put two strikers, but there would have been no room, it would be pure ball and that's why I put up with it for so long. When you have that kind of player, you want them to get better at walking. We must recognize the work of Junior, we face a great team. In the first half I got annoyed with them because we had worked out some things for the still ball and we were doing others; in the second half we improved. You had to take the ball to the sides and then shoot centers. The important thing is that everything is trained.”
Millionarios will face America de Cali on the next date, visiting Pascual Guerrero. Junior, for his part, will face Alianza Petrolera and will seek to re-enter the group of eight.
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