The rivalry between Nacional and Millonarios is arguably the fiercest rivalry in Colombian football and so hundreds of police were on hand equipped with water canon tanks lined up on the streets outside the Atanasio Giradot stadium to give the whole thing an almost war-like atmosphere.
I viewed the match from a siege-like position in the corner of the northern terrace where the away Millonarios supporters were stationed. Around a thousand Millonarios fans had made the trip from Bogota and a win would see their team move into the top eight playoff places for the first time this season. The vast majority of fans had arrived in a fleet of buses which had received a police escort from outside Medellin to the Atanasio stadium.
As I took my position on the terrace huge flares were lit from higher up in the stand and fireworks were sent up into the sky, as the supporters below dodged the flying sparks. The teams were out on the pitch and the atmosphere was electric.
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| The away Millonarios section just prior to kick off |
The first chance came inside ten minutes with Millonarios defender Luis Mosquera hitting the bar with Nacional kepper Pezzuti beaten. Millonarios had other opportunities to open the scoring, but it was Nacional who took the lead courtesy of a gaping hole left by the Millonarios defence and a tidy finish from Nacional winger Dorlan Pabon.
The half time entertainment consisted of dodging the missiles being launched between sets of supporters. Bottles are easy to spot as they arch towards you, but coins are less easily detected and are thrown with such venom that by the time you see them it's usually too late. So it was with some relief when the players emerged from the tunnels and the stream of missiles died down.
Millonarios began the second half brightly, but a wonder strike from Jairo Palomino gave Nacional a two-goal cushion just 8 minutes after the break.
The Nacional fans to our left went wild as did the rest of the stadium, none more so than the die-hard Nacional fans (known as Los Del Sur) situated down in the south section of the ground.
The Millonarios fans continued their singing, and as hope of even a point seemed to be fading they were thrown a lifeline when Lionard Pajoy hit a well struck shot past the Nacional keeper to reduce the deficit to 2-1.
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| The away Millos fans watch from a distance as Pajoy prepares to fire a consolation |
With ten minutes remaining the riot police began herding us out of the stand. The police seemed well prepared outside the ground with barriers closing off a large section around the outside of the stadium. We were moved swiftly along to shouts of "Rapido muchachos!" from the mounted police.
As the first of the thousand or so Millonarios supporters boarded the buses that would whisk them back to the capital I slipped away and hailed a taxi from a quiet nearby street. The local radio station in the taxi relayed the remaining minutes and as I arrived home to turn on the TV the match ended in victory for Atletico Nacional of Medellin.
Jubilant fans were being interviewed outside the ground when the worried face of the female reporter announced that police had just begun to fire tear gas and the feed was abruptly ended.
It later transpired that the Nacional fans had clashed with police attempting to hold them within the south section of the stand. Fans had attacked police with rocks and knives, and went on to damage the Metro, which runs close to the stadium, local houses and even their own teams' bus. The clashes continued for some time, with the police firing shots and tear gas and, following the capture of numerous fans, confiscating a total of 180 knives. One Nacional fan received a gun shot from the police and was taken to hospital.
Officials have called for Atletico Nacional to play their remaining games this season behind closes doors until measures are taken to ensure events like this are not repeated. Riots are commonplace outside football stadia in Colombia, but this particular riot seemed to defy common sense as, firstly, their team had just won, and secondly the rival fans were by then miles from the ground.
The victory moved Atletico Nacional into 3rd spot with Millonarios back in 10th needing a minumum of 3 wins from their remaining 4 matches.
This is the RCN news report on the match and some of the trouble which followed:
| Round 15 Fixtures and Results | ||
| Tolima | 3-0 | Equidad |
| Junior | 0-2 | America |
| Cali | 3-1 | Cartagena |
| Nacional | 1-1 | Envigado |
| Chico | 3-3 | Medellin |
| Once Caldas | 2-1 | Huila |
| Cucuta | 1-1 | Santa Fe |
| Quindio | 2-0 | Cortulua |
| Millonarios | 2-1 | Pereira |
