Junior de Barranquilla stopped dead in its tracks and could lose the lead in the BetPlay League: La Equidad took a point from them at the Metropolitano.

Junior de Barranquilla continues to stall and this Friday fell short of three points in the BetPlay League, drawing 1-1 against La Equidad at the Roberto Meléndez Metropolitan Stadium.

Although the Barranquilla team wakes up this Saturday as the championship leader, they could lose that spot if Fortaleza defeats América de Cali by a wide margin on Sunday.

Medellín, which is second in the championship, will not have any action this weekend after its match against Águilas Doradas was postponed due to structural problems in the western stand of the Alberto Grisales Stadium.

This is the third consecutive game in which Junior has failed to secure a victory. They were coming off two consecutive defeats, one against Atlético de Cali in the Copa BetPlay round of 16, and another against Unión Magdalena in the coastal derby.

La Equidad, who are at the bottom of the league table, put in a strong performance in Barranquilla. They held their own defensively in the first half and managed to reach halftime with a clean sheet.

However, Junior managed to take the lead in the 70th minute, when Guillermo Paiva outran the visiting defense and headed in the first goal of the match, following a cross from Bryan Castrillón.

But La Equidad found the reward for their good performance in the 88th minute, when two of the squad's foreign players set up the 1-1 play: Venezuelan Jovanny Bolívar stole the ball from Carlos Esparragoza and joined up with Argentine Manuel Mónaco in a one-two, then fell into a scoring position and beat goalkeeper Jéfferson Martínez.

"The explanation for the result lies in the number of opportunities we failed. We've won other times, and I've come here to say that the team didn't play well. Today (Friday), the team played well," said Junior coach Alfredo Arias.