Deportes Tolima defeated Deportivo Cali 1-0 and won the first title of the season with the 2022 Dimayor Superliga, at the Manuel Murillo Toro Stadium in Ibagué. With a fairly even game in the first half, for the final part the ‘pijaos’ were more effective than the ‘sugar bowlers’, scoring the only goal with a Michael Rangel header, to leave the aggregate 2-1 in favor of those led by Hernan Torres.
The game started with a great pace, in which Cali exerted high pressure to prevent Tolima from leaving and to be able to reach the goal defended by William Cuesta more easily, while the local team managed to get out of that situation with the passing of minutes. pressure playing especially on the wings, where they later sent crosses to Michael Rangel inside the area, having a couple of options to score.
With the passing of the minutes, the game was accentuated in the middle of the field with more possession of the Tolimenses, who tried to go on the attack from the left sector with Andrés Ibarguen who teamed up with the Peruvian Raziel García, Brayan Rovira and Juan David Rivers.
Cali managed to approach the ‘pijaos’ area with collective movements, but in the last quarter of the field they did not find the fluidity to enter the area and the best approaches came with shots from Jorge Marsiglia, on a rebound after a corner kick from the left flank and ending the first half with another mid-range shot from Jhon Vásquez, in both actions the goalkeeper Cuesta controlled without problem.
For the second half, the two teams once again showed a good offensive posture and at minute 54 Tolima achieved its goal, Raziel García charged a center from one of the edges of the area, Michael Rangel anticipated his marker who was Jhon Vásquez and from header scored the partial 1-0.
After the goal, Cali reacted offensively with quite clear arrivals at Cuesta’s goal with shots by Guillermo Burdisso in a bad start by the goalkeeper from Tolima, Teófilo Gutiérrez in a corner kick and Jhon Vásquez with a powerful shot from long distance that stopped without rebound the local goalkeeper.
By minute 72, Tolima was coming out of the ‘sugar’ pressure and responded with play and clear arrivals, the first was with a center that Andrés Ibarguen received without a mark after a miscalculation by Aldair Gutiérrez, the winger finished off and Guillermo De Amores sent to the corner kick. The second was a Yohandry Orozco shot that went slightly wide and seconds later a shot inside the area by Rovira that De Amores rejected again.
In the end, Cali, with the passing of the minutes, was losing power in the attack and Tolima was able to better control the commitment and the start of the visit, to become champion of its first Superliga Dimayor, after losing the 2019 against Junior in Manuel Murillo Toro.
Juan Andres Arias Arias
Correspondent Futbolred Cali
On Twitter: @AriasJuan_15