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37,629 people filled El Campin Stadium to the brim - a complete sell out.
The media and bookies had us as underdogs, large in part to me - the inexperienced manager on the bench.
I set my stall out, named my team in a 4-1-2-1-2 formation and told the lads to do what we'd been doing in training, intricate, one-two touch football. Pass, move, find space.
We set up quite defensive minded, being the away side as we had plenty of pace to hit Millonarios on the counter.
ATLETICO NACIONAL - LINE UP
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We lost Crystian and Duque to injury in the first 20 minutes, replacing them with Angel and Railan - not an ideal start but the team rallied and Railan played a big hand in our opener.
His lung bursting run down the right flank found him in space, pulling back for Cardenas to slip through Uribe, who rounded the 'keeper and tapped home.
31 minutes in… 1-0 up. Hmmmm.
The goal seemed to suck the life from Millonarios as we pressed for a second.
Sure enough, Fernando Uribe popped up on 42' to head home a left wing cross from Valencia.
The team went wild, our little section of 1,800 travelling supporters, even moreso..
We got to the break 2-0 ahead.
I told the guys to keep it calm, steady the ship.
The second half was a drab affair, Millonarios looking tired and void of ideas, while we stroked the ball around without really creating, after all, taking a 2 goal lead to Medellin was more than we'd hoped for.
The whistle went and there were hugs and high fives aplenty… We'd done it.
Halfway there.
FINAL SCORE
MILLONARIOS 0
ATLETICO NACIONAL 2
