Deportivo Cali beat Rionegro Águilas 2:0 in the third stage of the Clausura tournament at their own stadium on 28 September 2026. The result keeps the hosts in ninth place while the visitors drop further to twelfth, both sides having played 19 matches so far. And here's the thing — this was another day where home advantage meant something, though not in the way the statistics might suggest.
Eduard Bello opened the scoring in the twentieth minute, a moment the game would turn on. By then the visitors had been pressing, but the breakthrough came from the hosts, who had the sharper edge in front of goal. Bello doubled his tally fifty-nine minutes in, and the match was effectively over. Rionegro Águilas had their chances, but they could not find the net.
Discipline was tight throughout, with five yellow cards distributed between the sides. Fabian Viafara was booked in the second minute, a reminder that the tempo was already high. Gustavo Cuéllar and John Ontaneda picked up cautions in the sixty-first and sixty-fourth minutes respectively, while Edwin Velasco and Jhon Meléndez joined the list later. The substitutions reflected the need to change things — eight in total, with Eduard Bello himself coming off in the eighty-fourth minute after his work was done.
The numbers tell a different story. Deportivo Cali controlled 48 per cent of possession and registered nine shots on target, converting two. Rionegro Águilas had 52 per cent possession but managed only three shots on target from ten attempts. The visitors blocked seven shots but could not prevent the goals. And here's the thing — the market had overreacted to the favourite, but the game was decided by those two Bello strikes.
We had called for a home win before kick-off, and the result confirmed that view. The confidence was not high — fifty-three per cent — but the hosts ground out the win they deserved. Deportivo Cali now sit on 27 points, two ahead of Rionegro Águilas on 26, and the gap feels meaningful after a day where the visitors could not find their rhythm.
