Atlético Nacional beat Deportes Tolima 3-1, with a goal from Candelo that could be the best of the semester and with an authority in all areas of the field that will be difficult to reverse. Is there still life for the final on Sunday, in Ibagué, after that superiority? Our guest analysts take care of this analysis.
These were the questions to our experts, in the FUTBOLRED debate:
1. Is the series sentenced in favor of Atlético Nacional, after 3-1 in the first leg?
2. How should Nacional plan the rematch in Ibagué to defend its advantage and how should Tolima do it to achieve the feat?
Tito Puccetti
Narrator and analyst for Win Sports and DirecTV
1. And I think so, the final is sentenced. It’s football and it could happen that Mier comes out on the first play, they expel him, 1-0 minute 5, Tolima wins, the public is on top of it… it could be. But it is very complicated. Tolima is stronger as a visitor, it is very difficult for them to create spaces when the teams… not only do they get behind but they stand up well from the middle to the back, Tolima does not have that creativity or they have not played it for that reason in the project from Hernán Torres, who has been more about taking advantage of space, having the ball, and quickly attacking with his most valuable players. The other point is Plata, who questioned his participation, he had been scoring important goals and got injured, because it is another point against Tolima. I don’t see how it can be traced back, it’s football but in terms of possibilities, Nacional has a 70 per cent guaranteed star.
2. Nacional has been a weak team in defense, yes, but with a great goalkeeper, it is one of the teams that gets kicked the most in the home run, only Bucaramanga got one more shot. His goalkeeper is the best saver of all. And with what he showed on this date, Kevin Mier is showing that it is not so easy to beat him. Nacional must go out to control the game, without risking too much, those who play outside, if they are Dorlan and Mantilla, have to go out with the wings, not give space, despair Tolima. put in a double midfielder, I don’t know if Mejía is here to start or they give Jhon Duque the opportunity to accompany Sebastián Gómez, a candidate for best player of the semester in Colombian soccer, and with Olivera and Cabal at the level they were in the first leg, they can manage a difference of two goals. Nacional should not change the script, with the normal difficulties of a football match.
Elías Terán Field
Win Sports commentator
1. Sentenced no, there are 90 minutes left, but it does have a comfortable advantage. It is difficult for a national team to score three goals. He is not sentenced but he plays very much in favor of Nacional and allows him to go to the second leg calmly, being a visitor and having two goals and obviously the responsibility of going to overwhelm Tolima, it is not done because there is one game left, but it is a very comfortable advantage.
2. I don’t think teams change their style much in the last game of a championship. Nacional scores you even though the rival is playing well, it is a great advantage of the team of ‘Arriero’ Herrera, the forcefulness. The rival may be well off but Nacional insists, insists, insists until the goal comes to him. They are easily given. The National goals works. When he suffers in defense, the goalkeeper appears, so it is a team that arrives with all the confidence, especially because of the advantage. The issue is what Tolima will do because it’s their turn to go out and plan the game, be the protagonist as a local, where it has cost them, score a goal and then take care of it. Nacional will not change much from what we saw in home runs and this first game, on an upward curve. The problem is Tolima, to see if Plata plays or not, if Lucumí flies or not, how he will do given the need to score at least two goals.
Julian Capera
Commentator and analyst for ESPN, columnist for Futbolred
1. She is not sentenced. Two goals are a significant difference in a final but 50 percent is missing, Nacional hit first and hard but half of the 180 minutes are missing and Tolima has shown that it can take on demanding scenarios. the advantage gives comfort and confidence to Nacional but it is a mistake to trust in a series that is not so open but alive.
2. Nacional has shown from home runs that he knows how to resist, defend himself, deliver the ball and responsibility to the rival, I imagine that he will bet on that in Ibagué. Tolima has nothing to take care of, he will surely take bigger risks, he will go looking from the beginning with what he has, taking advantage of the speed of his wingers and offensive midfielders, the ability to play those duels with rival defenders in his center forwards and taking precautions , accumulating as many pieces as possible in the rival field from very early on, releasing sides, with a lot of support from the front-line midfielders, like when there is not much left to lose and much to gain.
Nicholas Samper
Analyst at ESPN and RCN Radio and columnist for Futbolred
1. The series is not sentenced in favor of Nacional, beyond the fact that 3-1 is a wide score in a final. Tolima has its weapons, we have to see what ends up happening with Anderson Plata, one of the most important men in Hernán Torres’s scaffolding, but if it were sentenced they would not play the second game. Tolima has a team without so many individuals to solve, which has been Nacional’s great virtue at the end of the campaign, but it has a very solid team, with very structured work by Hernán Torres, so they will understand that they must come back from 2- 0 and they have a way to do it, variants at the top such as Caicedo, Rangel, Ramírez, men on the extremes in addition to Plata, which is unbalanced, but Tolima and Nacional must be clear about it so as not to be disappointed: neither Tolima lower their arms nor Nacional believe that they have the 17 stitched on the side of the jersey, that would be a very serious mistake.
2. Nacional should not change what it has done, the entry of Jhon Duque has given balance to the midfield that lacks some branding and precision in the pass, that modification that Herrera made brought benefits, Nacional will have to play more Like Tolima, I mean being more reactive, not giving the ball away but knowing how to play without the ball, with quick transitions down the flanks. There are men for that, Andreade should be the starter over Guzmán and with that mirror effect on what Tolima has done, harm the rival, who has difficulties resolving lawsuits at home. Why change what is done well? Has no sense. That formula has Nacional on the verge of a title that it needs like water.
Jose Orlando Ascension
Sports sub-editor of El Tiempo
1. is not sentenced. As long as there is a mathematical possibility, Tolima still can and has what to react with, although trying not to make the mistakes of the first leg, which were many and serious.
2. Nacional is a team that is not afraid to get behind and will surely do something similar to what it did in Bogotá against Millonarios, knowing that it has a good advantage. The Tolima thing will have a lot to do with the players he can recover. If Plata is available and Lucumí returns, he can hurt Nacional on the wings. And he must also continue to experiment with something that worked well for him in the first leg, which is to look for plays in the side payments. He took a goal from a corner kick and was able to score another.
