The Sports Pereira won its first Colombian league title on Wednesday, in its 78-year history, by beating 4-3 on penalties against Deportivo Independiente Medellin (DIM), where they drew 0-0 in the second leg of the Clausura Tournament final.
The great figure of the title was the goalkeeper Harlen ‘Chipi Chipi’ Castillo, who saved two penalties from the Almighty and made the stadium of Hernán Ramírez Villegas celebrate, full of fans who celebrated for the first time a title for in the team of his loved ones, led by Alejandro Restrepo.
The game was decided from 12 steps after neither of the two teams managed to break the zero which would have been unbalanced in the 1-1 first leg.
For Pereira, Leonardo Castro, Maicol Medina, Juan Pablo Zuluaga and Léider Berrío scored, scoring the last penalty. The only one who failed was center-back Carlos Ramírez.
While for DIM José Hernández, Felipe Pardo and Christian Marrugo were right and not Andres Cadavid and Adrián Arregui, whose shots were well saved by goalkeeper Castillo.
The hosts showed their locality in the first minutes, where under intense pressure they caused damage from the sides with the mobility of Léider Berrío and Brayan León, who brought the team closer to Mosquera Marmolejo’s goal.
The Pereiran team was led on the field by midfielder Jhonny Vásquez, who was also a stopper who reduced the long shots of Argentine Adrián Arregui and Andrés Ricaurte.
However, the Powerful countered local dominance with brilliant work from centre-backs Víctor Moreno and Andrés Cadavid, who troubled striker Leonardo Castro throughout the first half.
In the complementary phase, DIM leveled the charges and had the first clear chance in the 50 with a free kick from centre-back Andrés Cadavid that required goalkeeper Castillo, who had to stretch to stop the ball slip into his goal.
However, Pereira’s clearest came in this context in a counterattack where Mosquera saved two shots, one from León and one from Castro, drowned out by the shout for a goal from the crowd that accompanied the Matecaña club in Hernán stadium. Ramirez Villegas.
As the minutes passed, the Almighty decided to withdraw and Pereira attacked wherever he could, led by a Vásquez who drove his team towards the Mosquera goal.
However, DIM kept order and prevented Restrepo’s team from continuing to reach their goal at risk. In the end, the goal did not come and everything was decided on penalties, with Pereira winning the long-awaited title.
With this victory, which also has as one of the main protagonists the scorer Leonardo Castro who is the top scorer of the tournament with 15 goals, Pereira will play in the Copa Libertadores for the first time in 2023.
DATA SHEET
0 – Deportivo Pereira: Harlen Castillo; Jherson Mosquera, Andrés Correa, Carlos Ramírez; Juan Pablo Zuluaga, Jhonny Vásquez (m.80, Maicol Medina), Yílmar Velásquez (m.91, Harlin Suárez), Jimer Fory; Léider Berrío, Brayan León, and Leonardo Castro
Coach: Alejandro Restrepo
0 – DIM: Andres Mosquera; Juan Guillermo Arboleda, Victor Moreno, Andrés Cadavid, Yulián Gómez; Adrián Arregui, Andrés Ricaurte (m.64, Daniel Torres), Felipe Pardo, Vladimir Hernández (m.58, Christian Marrugo); Luciano Pons and Diber Cambindo (m.84, José Hernández)
Coach: David Gonzalez
Referee: Carlos Ortega. He advised Cambindo, Zuluaga, Gómez, Vásquez, Correa, Arregui, Marrugo and Castro
Incidents: The second leg of the Colombian league final was played at the Hernán Ramírez Villegas stadium, in Pereira
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
