Junior welcomed Millonarios on Saturday night at the Romelio Martínez with a change that mattered immediately: Mauro Silveira was back in goal, and Jhomier Guerrero was back in Barranquilla wearing Millonarios colors. The match, played at 8:15 p.m. in the second date of Liga II, gave Junior a first chance to steady itself after a rough start to the semester.
That start had already left a mark. Junior arrived after being knocked out of the Copa Colombia by Barranquilla FC and after losing 2-1 to Deportes Tolima in Ibagué in its league opener, so the home team needed a response more than a routine result. Silveira had missed that opener because of a one-match suspension for accumulated yellow cards, while Jesús Rivas still had one suspension match left after his red card in the Liga I final against Nacional.
The return of Silveira mattered because Junior needed its structure back as much as its points. Alfredo Arias was aiming to restore the shape that carried Junior to two consecutive titles, with a four-defender line, two holding midfielders, two wingers, one playmaker and one striker — a setup built to protect the back line, keep the center compact and still create width and a central passing lane for the attack. Against a team that had also lost its opener, the match was less about style than whether Junior could look like the bicampeón again.
Guerrero’s presence sharpened the evening further. Junior had not reached an agreement with him on a renewal before his contract expired in December, and the club chose to negotiate his economic and federative rights with Millonarios instead of letting him leave for free six months later. That left him on the opposite side when Millonarios, coached by Fabián Bustos, arrived in Barranquilla after a 1-0 loss to Atlético Bucaramanga in Bogotá.
Junior also had more firepower available than it did a week earlier. Luis Fernando Muriel and Francisco Fydriszewski were called up after missing the Tolima game for disciplinary reasons. Muriel had scored two goals against Barranquilla FC in the Copa Colombia series, while Fydriszewski was still looking for his first goal after missing a penalty in that same tie. Millonarios brought Guerrero, Javier Burrai, Stiven Barreiro, Francisco Chaverra and Andrey Estupiñán to Barranquilla, which made the night feel like an early test of whether either club could turn a bad opening into a real recovery.
Junior has been trying to move on from a Copa Colombia setback that ended its chance to keep building momentum on multiple fronts, while Millonarios arrived under its own pressure after opening with defeat. What follows now is simpler: Junior either uses Silveira’s return and its full attacking group to reset immediately, or it spends the rest of the opening stretch chasing the form it has already lost.
