Final battle for the League: Does Junior gain the advantage?

[Jose.]

Final battle for the League: Does Junior gain the advantage?

The difference that Junior brought to Medellín eight days ago, in Barranquilla, seems difficult to overcome. The 4-1 has dreaming sharks with their eighth star. In fact, never a team that has won by three goals or more difference in the first game of the League final lost the title. And that's what the team of Julio Comesaña clings to on Sunday, starting at 4:30 in the afternoon, to dream of his eighth star in the league.

The trend continues to extend the search to the other phases of direct elimination and the Copa Colombia, since it began to play in its current format, in 2008. No team came back three goals against. But there were two that matched the series and then won in the tiebreaker from the penalty spot.

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In the League, the only team that did it was Junior, who lost the first match of the semifinal of the 2011-II League with Millonarios (3-0). The team matched the series at their stadium, Roberto Meléndez: he won by the same score and then prevailed in the charges from the white point. The coach of that team was José 'Cheché' Hernández.

"The fundamental thing that time was the impulse that we found on behalf of the people of Barranquilla. When we arrived from Bogota the support was immense, people believed that it could be traced. The Queen of Carnival, who was Andrea Jaramillo Char, went to the hotel, talked to the players, had lunch with us. Now I see that with Medellin the same thing is happening, they put many fans on training Thursday. That does not mean that they are going to go back to the series, but it is important to feel supported, "recalled 'Cheché'.

The psychological was key for Junior to move forward. There is even an anecdote that turned out to be very important for what came later. Both 'Cheché' and the then coach of Millonarios, the Venezuelan Ríchard Páez, were summoned by the Disciplinary Committee after the first leg. The meetings of that committee are usually late and the doors of the Dimayor are closed to the public. Paez arrived when they had already closed and Hernandez asked the doorman to let him in. "Profe, they won us very well, we have no way to trace that, I congratulate you," said Cheché, who later confessed that that, surely, relaxed Millionaires.

"A few weeks before, Millonarios had eliminated us from the Cup: we lost 4-1 in Bogota and in Barranquilla we went 0-0. Unlike the other game, when the semifinal ended in El Campín, we looked at each other in the clubhouse and said we were going to try it. Not that we were going to go back, but we were going to try ", recalled the then coach of Junior. The momentum reached to win what, until today, is the last red and white star.

The clock will be another key factor. "The first 15, 20 minutes are almost always the initial share of a comeback, but in football everything is patience, as in life. Medellín can be played, knowing that he has a great team in front, but he could not run out of motivation, without dreams, without being daring to go on the attack, "Bernal said.

'Cheché' was already champion with Junior and believes that the difference he took is enough to win the title. "Knowing the inside of the Junior, I think he does not let the title escape. You can have 120 minutes, the extra time, the aggregate trip, the pain of defeat, but the title does not let go, without belittling Medellín and what it can do to overcome, "he said.