Lots of fun! The two-time champion América de Cali defeated Tolima and qualified for the quarterfinals

The devil knows more like an old man than a devil. That’s the saying America certainly stuck to this week, to put the criticism aside and hit the first of their goals this semester: to get into the top eight of the tournament.

Because if the Juan Cruz Real team has shown anything, it’s that the worst his rivals – and his critics too – can do is leave him for dead if he still has options to fight.

It happened last year, when no one bet a dime on a squad that eventually took the fifteenth star, and it happened this Sunday, when, with efficiency and calmness, the red beat 2-0 over the encopetado and seemingly dangerous Tolima, to stay with the last ticket available to play the playoffs.

With an offensive roster, but without their forward Adrián Ramos, who is still recovering from his discomfort, America practically played football to beat the pijaos, who qualified for Pascual anyway.

Nacional, Santa Fe, Millonarios, Deportivo Cali, Equidad and Junior complete the qualification group.

The Scarlet started the game very early, after eight minutes, when Julián Quiñones scored in his own goal after unsuccessfully rejecting a cross from Duván Vergara, one of the most prominent of the game.

América won, but played with one ear in the cold Manizales, where Medellín, their direct rival in the fight for qualifying, had not yet started playing against Once Caldas due to the heavy rain that fell on the Palogrande stadium.

But that didn’t make Juan Cruz Real’s uncomfortable, who were intelligent in complement, closing spaces for the rival and hitting the second goal on 81, when Vergara shot down goalkeeper Álvaro Montero after a poor start to the Tolima.

2-0, America managed to make it to the final minutes, confident that the result in the capital of Caldas would not compete with them. And that’s what happened, as Medellín had to score three goals to clear the ticket, but ended up losing 2-0.

The devil knows more like an old man than a devil, America repeats, that he eventually feels confident in himself.