A 0-0 bore draw on a cold Tuesday night in Bogotá means there’s still everything to play for between Independiente Santa Fe and Independiente de Medellín.
The final round of playoff games before the Colombian league finals were full of drama as the clásico capitalino saw Santa Fe upset Millonarios in the midst of controversy. However, that didn’t carry through to the first leg of the final itself, which was a cagey and goalless affair, mainly down to solid keeping from Marmolejo between sticks for Santa Fe.
That leaves the tie on a knife edge for Sunday’s return fixture in Medellín at the Estadio Atanasio Girardot. One way or another there will be a winner on the weekend, with the match going straight to penalties after 90mins in the case of a draw as away goals are not counted in Colombia.
Medellín started brightly and had the better of the opening stages, working some cute angles and looking the more likely to score. However, both sides remained cagey and the game stayed slow.
On 22 minutes Medellín had the first real chance of the game. Léider Berrío pounced as Santa Fe dithered while working the ball out from the back and charged through to a one on one with cardenal keeper Marmolejo. However, a poor first touch took the ball too far wide and the as the goalie made himself big there was no way past.
Santa Fe responded nine minutes later with ex-Wigan striker Hugo Rodellega stinging Aguerre’s hands from range. That was it for the rest of the half until Medellín striker Brayan León missed a great chance from just six yards out, ballooning his shot over a nearly open goal deep in injury time.
That left the teams evenly matched on the scoresheet but with Medellín probably the happier of the two. Santa Fe, meanwhile, were no doubt relieved at León’s let-off just before the break and looking to give a bit more in the second half.
The paisas again came out of the blocks at full speed, though. Just two minutes had passed when that man Berrío again stole through unmarked in the righthand channel. However, his shot at the near post was met by Marmolejo’s fast reflexes as he managed to turn it onto the post.
That jolted Santa Fe out of their torpor and Rodallega clipped a smart volley just over the bar three minutes later after some good build up play. Another chance came when ‘El Turro’ Olivera headed over from Santa Fe’s seventh corner of the night on 63 minutes with Aguerre left stranded.
The final chance of the night fell to Brayan León, outpacing the defence to race on to a long ball and find himself on with Marmolejo. The keeper was equal to the task again, turning León’s shot away. The rest of the game ticked over without great incident.
That means all eyes now turn to Medellín, where both sides are searching for a first title since 2016, where Medellín took the apertura and Santa Fe the finalización. Kick-off is at 6pm on Sunday and with a whole day’s fiesta for the winning side to get over their hangover.
