Cuadrado clear to face Nacional in Millonarios clasico

Good news for Millonarios fans amid the joy of the win. Juan Guillermo Cuadrado will be free to play against Atletico Nacional with no issues at all, according to head coach Alberto Gamero himself, who confirmed the news after the rout of Boyaca Chico.

The coach from Santa Marta used the press conference to get ahead of a piece of news many had been waiting on: the suspension Cuadrado was carrying from a red card he picked up last season playing in Italy with Pisa will not be served in the Liga BetPlay, but in the Copa Colombia instead. That's what the club requested from Dimayor, and that's how it was resolved, though the answer came down to the wire.

I don't know if I'm getting ahead of things here, but Millonarios made a request and the request was granted. He's going to serve it in the Cup (BetPlay), not in the League (BetPlay). The ruling came in late, late last night, and he had already gone through his work.Alberto Gamero

Still, Gamero was careful to point out that being administratively cleared is one thing, and being physically ready is another. Cuadrado is the club's marquee signing of the window, and the coaching staff wants him in the best possible shape before throwing him into something as big as a clasico against Nacional.

So we're going to take this week to see how he progresses. What we want is to have him at his best. Once he's ready, he'll be with us. We've got these four days to assess him. He's doing physical conditioning work to get up to speed.Alberto Gamero

The injuries worrying the attack

The other side of the coin is the absence of Leonardo Castro and Rodrigo Contreras, two important pieces of the blue attack. The outlook for Contreras isn't encouraging: Gamero was clear that he sees it as very unlikely the player will be ready in time for Thursday's match against Nacional. Castro's case is different, since his recovery will be reassessed day by day throughout the week.

To cover for those absences, the coach already has a plan in mind: Andres Estupinan, a player he managed last season who can play either as a winger or as a forward depending on what the team needs. Against Chico, in fact, he got minutes on the field and created scoring chances, one of which he converted, giving him an extra bit of confidence heading into what's next.

A much needed win

On the match itself, Gamero praised the way his team generated football, though he admitted they lacked sharpness in front of goal.

The team that scores goals is the one that creates them, and there's peace of mind because we created scoring chances, because we built our play. But we need to fix our finishing. We lacked precision. We won a match we needed to win today to move up the table. We needed those 3 points today and we got them, and I think we did it very well.Alberto Gamero

With Cuadrado's suspension sorted out for league purposes, and with the uncertainty over Castro and Contreras still to be cleared up in the coming days, Millonarios head into the match against Atletico Nacional with more questions than certainties, though at least they now know they'll be able to count on their star signing.