América de Cali receives Millonarios this Monday at the Pascual Guerrero Olympic Stadium, in a postponed match from the 16th round of the Colombian League.
Both teams come into this match classified for the semifinals of the championship, but the result is highly relevant for the Escarlata team as it has a good chance of finishing as the group leader.
Los Diablos Rojos are currently in third place in the overall standings with 34 points, but with one less match than their direct rivals Independiente Medellín and Águilas Doradas.
The Poderoso team has 36 points and Águilas Doradas has 41. If América wins the Clásico against Millonarios, they would have 37 points and climb to second place in the Torneo Finalización.
This way, the vallecaucana team would not be able to win the stage of the 'todos contra todos' but they would be closer to snatching the second place from Alfredo Arias' team.
In this battle, América also has an advantage over DIM: they have a goal difference of +16 while Poderoso has +11.
If América achieves this second position, they would have an advantage over the teams they have to face in the playoffs, because in a possible tie in points for first place in their group, they would automatically go to the final for having an invisible point.
For this reason, it is very important to achieve a victory against Millonarios. Otherwise, Independiente Medellín would be the first to have the option of being the group leader.
On the Millonarios side, a victory would bring them closer to that possibility of being the group leader, although their path is more difficult due to the negative goal difference they have compared to the other teams.
Alberto Gamero's team has 30 points + 3 goals in favor. By beating the Escarlata team, they would have 33 units.
Millonarios needs to have 36 points, improve their goal difference, and hope that Medellín, América, Tolima, and Nacional do not add points in order to have the possibility of finishing second in the standings.