Atlético Nacional and Deportivo Pereira will play the second leg of the Super League this Thursday at the Atanasio Girardot Stadium in Medellín, in which the two champions of 2022 face each other to earn the first official title of the year in the country.
The purslane team, led by Brazilian coach Paulo Autuori, enter the final with the advantage after a 0-1 win in the first leg with Andrés Felipe Román’s scoreline over the Hernán Ramírez Villegas, where the visitor showed a remarkable improvement in their game and tactical variants.
Atlético Nacional, playing its sixth Super League, was the first champion of this tournament in 2012 and added its second title in 2016. It was his last participation five years ago, when the era of the Argentine Jorge Almirón was just beginning, who would failed to begin his cycle with the title after losing 2–1 on aggregate to Millonarios.
To go into this unprecedented final, the Medellín team will not be able to count on defender Juan Felipe Aguirre due to its exclusion in the first game and Brazilian striker Francisco Da Costa may also be out after being injured during Sunday’s match against Brazil. Deportivo Cali. , for the Colombian league, which ended 1-1.
Replacing in attack will be goalscorer Jéfferson Duque and Nelson Palacio is expected to be the starter as he missed the first 90 minutes due to injury.
El Verde gets the experienced Cristian Zapata in defense, who spent 15 years in Europe with Villareal and Milan, among others, and played with the Colombian team at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and 2018 in Russia.
In addition, it has the Brazilian winger Jader Gentil, another one of the reinforcements for the current season.
For its part, Deportivo Pereira, which won its first Colombian league title in its 78-year history in December, beating Deportivo Independiente Medellín (DIM) in the final, is chasing another title under coach Alejandro Restrepo, recently passed by the Nacional. Bank.
The matecañas, in their first participation in this competition, come back to the game depressed by the 3-1 defeat they suffered against Boyacá Chicó in Tunja, for the fourth date of the Colombian league, after having changed part of the squad thinking about the final in Medellín, where midfielder Jhonny Vásquez and striker Ángelo Rodríguez are rested, while midfielder Yilmar Velásquez is ruled out due to his exclusion in the first leg.
It is likely that midfielder Johan Bocanegra will be the big novelty in his starting eleven, and that goalkeeper Aldair Quintana, Carlos Ramírez, Yesus Cabrera and Arley Rodríguez will repeat themselves.
Source: El heraldo
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