Led by Argentine forward Luciano Pons, who won a double, Independiente Medellín defeated Chilean Magallanes 2-0 on Wednesdayin a match played at the Atanasio Girardot in Medellín.
The clear victory gives Medellín the right to go to the group stage of the Copa Libertadores, the most important South American tournament for professional teams, while Magallanes will go to the South American.
Pons paved the way to victory by capitalizing on a doubt in Magallanes’ defense and with a powerful shot he defeated the resistance of Uruguayan Gastón Rodríguez when the game was in the first quarter of an hour.
The synchronization and speed of Independiente Medellín thanks to the work of Pons, Emerson Batalla, Ángel Monsalve and Ever Valencia, made the superiority of those led by coach David González palpable.
Pons was able to increase the score, the same as Valencia, but his shots were either well controlled by Rodríguez or they passed close to the Chilean goal.
The arrivals of Medellín were abundant and finally Pons himself managed to increase the advantage, and score 2-0, by finishing off a cross from Valencia when 39 minutes went by.
While DIM was getting everything almost out of whack, Magallanes was harassed by bad luck because the few shots by Julián Alfaro, Tomás Aránguiz and Felipe Florez were not dangerous for goalkeeper Andrés Mosquera.
With a two-goal advantage, DIM went into the break with the satisfaction of having completed the work that began last week because in the first leg they managed to equalize 1-1 with Magallanes, who was able to end up thrashed in both games.
With water around his neck, Magallanes came out for the second half willing to shorten the gap and almost did it with the actions of Jones and Alfaro who demanded the DIM goalkeeper.
However, everything went to waste because Felipe Flores saw the red card with 67 minutes left. With one less and two goals down, Magallanes fought but couldn’t do anything.
Independiente Medellín, without playing the best of the second half, managed to control the game to emerge victorious and advance to the next phase of the Libertadores where they will not be able to count on Alexander Palacios, sent off at the end of the match.