Atlético Bucaramanga and Junior de Barranquilla faced off at the Américo Montanini stadium for the start of the second semester of the Liga BetPlay Dimayor. A match where the last champions of Colombian football went head-to-head, both looking to start the tournament in the best possible way.
Prior to this match, Rafael Dudamel’s team had just been crowned champions of the first semester after beating Santa Fe in penalties. Meanwhile, the Tiburón team lost to Millonarios 2-0 in the last round of the quadrangulares.
The match began with Junior de Barranquilla trying to overcome a very solid defense like Bucaramanga’s, which had helped them become champions, although both teams quickly sought to find a score that would favor one of them.
The match was progressing normally in Santander territory, with both teams trying to impose themselves on the opponent’s game, until at 27 minutes into the first half, everything would change for the better for Junior and for the worse for Bucaramanga. A strong stomp by Fabry Castro on Roberto Hinojosa would be the determining factor for the referee to ultimately send off the Leopards’ midfielder, leaving the entire team compromised for the rest of the match.
That expulsion for Bucaramanga would be taken advantage of offensively by Junior, and so it happened at the end of the first half when Arturo Reyes’s team would score the first goal through Steven ‘Titi’ Rodríguez. However, the forward was in an offside position, and the action would ultimately be ruled out.
During the second half, the game continued similarly for Junior and Bucaramanga, with the sharks being aggressive offensively while the Santandereans maintained a solid five-defender line that posed a danger to the visitors.
Despite Bucaramanga being one man down on the field, the team would surprise just a few minutes before the end of the game when, at 80 minutes, Andrés Ponce put the ball inside Jefferson Martínez’s goal, bringing joy to the coaching staff of the Leopards at the Américo Montanini.
This is how the game ended between the title defender and the Barranquilla team, where Rafael Dudamel’s team started the Liga with three points in this Todos contra Todos, while the sharks are left with no units on the standings table.
Now, for the second round, Atlético Bucaramanga will have to visit the capital to face Millonarios at El Campín next Sunday, the 21st. Meanwhile, Junior will host Boyacá Chicó at the Metropolitano on the same day. Both games correspond to the second round of Liga BetPlay Dimayor.