Violence marred Colombia’s soccer derby weekend in Primera A as the clash between Real Cartagena and Junior was abandoned due to crowd trouble on Sunday.
The referee was forced to take the players off the field and after a few minutes delay call an end to proceedings on 84 minutes, with Junior winning 3-1.
The trouble erupted when fans from Real Cartagena began ripping out chairs and confronting police in the stadium.
The hosts were 3-1 down at the time thanks to goals from Teofilo Gutierrez, Dayro Moreno and Giovanni Hernandez, with José Nájera grabbing a consolation.
The result means Junior stay second in the table while troubled Real Cartagena stay routed to the bottom with only one win and eight defeats out of their nine matches this season.
There was no less controversy in the capital Bogota as a last-gasp winner from Mayer Candelo gave Millonarios a 2-1 victory over Santa Fe, while four players were also dismissed in a fiery encounter.
Santa Fe pairing Gerardo Bedoya and Edwin Cardona were both shown straight red cards while Roman Torres was dismissed for Millonarios. Lewis Ochoa was shown his second yellow card after the final whistle.
However it was the dismissal of Bedoya which caused most uproar in the Millonarios camp. It appeared that Bedoya not only elbowed Jonny Ramirez after a corner kick but also kicked the Millonarios player in the face as he was lying on the ground.
A heavy suspension is expected for the veteran Colombian midfielder.
In the end it was the league leaders who came out on top and snatched the three points which keeps them a point ahead of Junior.
Elsewhere in Medellin, Independiente were denied all three points in somewhat cruel fashion with a controversial injury-time penalty allowing Atletico Nacional to snatch a 2-2 draw.
Jorge Arias was adjudged to have handled the ball in the penalty area, even though replays showed otherwise.
Luis Fernando Mosquera kept his nerve to smash home the resulting penalty kick and secure Santa Fe’s sixth draw out of nine league games.
In other notable results Quindio beat Once Caldas 3-1 to move up to third, while Cucuta lost by the same score line at Equidad and Itagui played out a goalless draw at Enviagdo.
