América de Cali are only ninety minutes away from winning their 13th
Colombian championship. Independiente de Medellín will surely have
different plans though.
Last Wednesday’s, América’s target was to earn at least a draw at Medellin’s Atanasio Girardot stadium but a 63rd-minute goal from Cortés earned them a victory instead.
All statistics point in the direction of a home win on Sunday, which would be enough for América to secure the title. The Cali outfit have won their last eight home games while Medellín haven’t been particularly impressive in away games this season. In fact, of the eleven games DIM played away from home, they won only three.
To make things worse for Medellín, they haven’t been able to beat América in any of their last six encouners -they lost five of them- and one would have to go back ten years to find DIM’s most recent win over América at Pascal Guerrero stadium.
If Medellín want to have a chance of turning things around on Sunday, they should try to take advantage of what has been their main strength this season: the final half hour. No less than fifty per cent of Medellín’s goals have been scored in the last thirty minutes of the match, which might just give them an edge over their opponents now that it really matters.
If América do remain focused and defend their lead, they will earn their 13th star which puts them in joint first place with Millonarios.
The match is scheduled to be played at 4:45pm local time, at Cali’s Pascal Guerrero stadium.