The 2018 Categoría Primera B season (officially known as the 2018 Torneo Águila season for sponsorship reasons) was the 29th season since its founding as Colombia's second division football league. The competition started on 10 February and concluded on 26 November. Cúcuta Deportivo were the champions by defeating Unión Magdalena 3–0 on aggregate score in the final. Both teams were also promoted to the Categoría Primera A.
Format For this season, the league returned to the 'one tournament per year' format. The season will consist of three stages. In the first stage, the 16 clubs played each other twice, once at home and once away. Similar to the 2018 Primera A season, the extra matches against a regional rival were not played. The top eight teams after the thirty rounds advanced to the semifinal round where they were sorted into two groups of four and played a double round-robin tournament group stage, with the top team of each group qualifying to the finals. The winner of the finals was crowned as the season champions and also earned promotion to the Categoría Primera A for the 2019 season. The season runner-up would have to play the best team in the aggregate table (other than the champion) on a home-and-away basis for the second promotion berth. In case the season runner-up also ended up as the best team in the aggregate table, it would also be promoted and the promotion play-off would not be played.
Teams 16 teams took part, fourteen of them returning from last season plus Cortuluá and Tigres, who were relegated from the 2017 Primera A. The former will return to the second tier after 3 years while the latter returned after one season in the top flight. Both teams replaced Boyacá Chicó and Leones who earned promotion at the end of the last season.
ClubHome cityStadiumCapacity Atlético Cali Pascual Guerrero 33,130 Barranquilla Barranquilla Romelio Martíneza 20,000 Bogotá Bogotá Metropolitano de Techo 8,000 Cortuluá Tuluá Doce de Octubreb 16,000 Cúcuta Deportivo Cúcuta General Santander 42,901 Deportes Quindío Armenia Centenario 20,716 Deportivo Pereira Pereira Hernán Ramírez Villegas 30,297 Fortaleza Cota Municipal de Cota 4,000 Llaneros Villavicencio Manuel Calle Lombana 15,000 Orsomarso Palmira Francisco Rivera Escobar 9,000 Real Cartagena Cartagena Jaime Morón León 16,068 Real Santander Floridablanca Álvaro Gómez Hurtado 9,000 Tigres Bogotá Metropolitano de Techo 8,000 Unión Magdalena Santa Marta Sierra Nevada 16,000 Universitario Popayán Ciro López 5,000 Valledupar Valledupar Armando Maestre Pavajeau 11,000 a: Barranquilla used the Estadio Metropolitano Roberto Meléndez in Barranquilla as home stadium during the first half of the season. b: Cortuluá used the Estadio Pascual Guerrero in Cali instead of the Estadio Doce de Octubre in Tuluá as home stadium during the first half of the season.
First stage Standings
Results
Semifinals The eight teams that advanced to the Semifinals were drawn into two groups of four teams. The winners of each group advanced to the finals.
Group A
Group B
Finals
Cúcuta Deportivo won 3–0 on aggregate.
Aggregate table
Promotion play-off Since the season runners-up Unión Magdalena also ended up as the best team in the aggregate table (other than the champions), they earned automatic promotion to the Categoría Primera A and the promotion play-off was not played.
Top goalscorers
Rank Name Club Goals 1 Feiver MercadoCortuluá 27 2 Ricardo MárquezUnión Magdalena 20 3 Jonathan AgudeloCúcuta Deportivo 17 4 Diego HerazoValledupar 16 5 Wilson EspañaUniversitario 12 6 Diego EcheverriDeportivo Pereira 11 7 Néstor ArenasReal Santander 10 Henry CastilloBogotá Yorleys MenaDeportivo Pereira Jorge ObregónReal Cartagena Juan José SalcedoReal Cartagena Jhonier ViverosUnión Magdalena
Source: Soccerway
See also 2018 Categoría Primera A season 2018 Copa Colombia
References
External links