Colón deservedly beat the league leaders who were top without justification | OneFootball

Ezequiel Medrán’s team looked erratic in the opening minutes against an opponent that appeared cautious and was simply waiting for a counterattack to hurt the “sabalero.” Lértora repaid the coach’s trust by being included in the starting eleven for the first time, and every play began with a touch from the “León.” Peinipil pushed forward on the right and, in connection with Cano, the first approaches to the visitors’ goal started to appear. Little by little, “el sabalé” began to show superiority.

In a typical match for the division, Colón relied on Bonansea to battle with the opposing defenders, Lértora’s involvement at the start of every play, and the attacks from the standout player on the field, Lago, to get closer and closer to opening the score. A clear example was that play recovered by Lértora, which Bonansea couldn’t capitalize on at first, then the ball fell to Lago, whose shot went over the crossbar.

On top of that, Colón understood that with their center-backs pushed up, they would suffer little to nothing. With that decision made, the visiting team never set foot in the “rojinegra” penalty area, and their only option was to bypass the midfield with long balls that led nowhere; playing through the middle was impossible for them. Before the end of the first half, Lago, with a header, forced Monllor to stretch and tip the ball out for a corner. Colón deserved more, but since they weren’t sharp, they went into halftime with the score at zero.

Logically, since they were better than their opponent, the “rojinegro” came out for the second half with the same eleven. Despite keeping the same names, the game no longer had the same tone for Medrán’s side, as without much dominance, the visitors started to play closer to Budiño, and to add to that, Ibarra tried to break away on the left but felt a twinge, which led to Darío Sarmiento immediately replacing him. Facundo Castro also came on for an unproductive Cano.

In the 12th minute, the most explosive moment of the night at the Brigadier arrived. Lago broke free on the left and smashed the ball into the net to put the “rojiné” 1-0 ahead. The goal should have brought calm, and it did, but the local coach quickly had to tweak his team to cope with fatigue, sending Sebastián Olmedo and Facundo Castro on for Castet and Cano. Later, Matías Muñoz came on for Antonio. Because of that fatigue and some merit from the opposition, Colón held on and tried to play on the counter, with Lago on fire all night, and they cleared two balls off the line in the same play. Finally, Medrán had to take off the recently introduced Sarmiento due to some discomfort, and Emanuel Beltrán came on. Colón won, remains unbeaten, and closed in on the league leader, who tonight did not justify their privileged position in these early rounds.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.