Junior returned to play at home and after having lost as a substitute against Fortaleza in Bogotá, the shark had the mission of returning to victory against Deportes Tolima, one of the leaders of the BetPlay 2024 League.
Junior was confused against Tolima and ended up suffering against the pijaos, who stood up well in the Metropolitano, managing to win by the smallest difference in the end.
The first half was complex for Junior, who, given the options he had, could not define in a great way and suffered in that item, in which Carlos Bacca, Yimmi Chará and José Enamorado ended up failing.
Tolima continued to stand well and before the end of the first half they managed to open the scoring, although it was with a little complicity from Junior’s defense, who were unable to reject the ball and the rebound ended up hitting Didier Moreno to score an own goal. .
For the second half, Junior had to come out no matter what to score the tie and dream of a comeback, but no matter how hard they tried in those first 20 minutes, they couldn’t find the finish to reach that goal.
Yimmi Chará and Homer Martínez tried to appear in key minutes, but they failed to score and the minutes ended up being the rival to beat.
David González moved his bench in search of maintaining the result and dedicated the last 15 minutes to closing the spaces for Junior, who continued to insist, but they did not find the right way to achieve their goal.
Arturo Reyes also tried to solve this lack of goals against the pijaos with the entry of several attacking players such as Vladimir Hernández and Johan Bocanegra, who entered in the final minutes for José Enamorado and Carlos Bacca, who were blocked for a large part of the game.
Junior did not give up and did not want to lose, but they had goalkeeper Neto Volpi in front, who smothered a shot from Marco Pérez, while Tolima tried to take advantage of the spaces with counterattacks.
With the shark team playing, Tolima almost managed to seal the victory in the 90+4 minute, but Santiago Mele appeared to prevent the goal from Léider Riascos, who finished off, but the Uruguayan managed to reach a difficult ball.
In the end, Junior did not get a favorable result and lost at home for the first time in this tournament, while Tolima remains a solid leader of the League with 14 points.