All of the teams that were in the top eight of the Colombian Copa
Mustang I ahead of the final match day, did enough to defend their spots
and advance to the second round.
Deportes Tolima finish the regular season in first place, ahead of Junior and Cúcuta. The other five teams to features in the ‘hexagonales’ are Boyacá Chicó, Deportivo Cali, La Equidad, Envigado and Once Caldas. Defending champions América de Cali are out.
The most important matches took place in the middle zone of the table. Deportivo Cali for example, secured their spot in the next round with a 2-2 draw versus Santa Fe of Bogotá. Armando Carrillo and Pablo Batalla scored for Cali, Julio Gutiérrez and Luis Seijas did so for Santa Fe.
La Equidad finished in sixth position following a 0-0 draw at Cúcuta, who were already through to the second round. La Equidad are, once again, the only Bogotá side to survive this phase in the top eight as the classic powerhouses Millonarios and Santa Fe again failed. Cúcuta have to do without Pedro Portocarrero in their first second round match, as the player was sent off near full time.
Envigado, last year one of the worst teams in the league, now finished seventh despite a 3-0 defeat to Deportivo Pasto on the final day. The goals came from Hugo Centurión (2) and Raúl Villamil.
Once Caldas defended their eighth place with a 1-0 win over Independiente Medellín, who finish in last position. The only goal came from Alexis Henriquez in the 57th minute at Palogrande stadium.
Deportes Quindío are ‘the best of the rest’, finishing in ninth position. The match with Atlético Huila was lost 0-2 with goals from Jeferson Angulo and Frank Pacheco.
The match between Real Cartagena and Boyacá Chicó, the latter already certain of a spot in the next round, ended in a crazy 6-3 result. The home goals came from Emerson Chamorro, Hernando Patiño and Edwards Jimnénez (3). Chicó’s goals were scored by Edwin Movil, Ormedis Madera and Charles Monsalvo.
Millonarios picked the very last match of the season to return to winning ways with a 3-1 victory over América de Cali, who in turn will have to forget about this season and focus on the next. Carmelo Valencia’s early opening goal for Millos was cancelled out by Gustavo Ramos but the hosts scored twice in the second half (Gerardo Bedoya and an own goal from Juan Torres) for a 3-1 final result.
In other matches, Nacional drew 1-1 with Pereira, while Tolima beat Junior 1-0 a day earlier.