Cruz Azul vs Atlas: Uriel Antuna's praised performance that gave La Máquina the victory

Despite the few days off he had after participating in the most recent call for the Mexican National Team, Uriel Antuna was chosen by Juan Reynoso to start the match between Cruz Azul and Atlas at the Azteca Stadium. The native of Gómez Palacio Durango took the hands of the fans again thanks to an outstanding performance that gave the three points to those of La Noria against the defending champions.

The two most recent monarchs of the Liga MX battled from the first minutes to keep the ball. The closed procedure almost did not give rise to spaces through which they could generate chances of danger. It was not until the 36th minute that the capitals benefited from the sacrifice of Brujo Antuna and managed to overtake those led by Diego Cocca on the scoreboard.

Ignacio Rivero took a ball in the midfield to try an offensive play. Santiago Giménez received the back-to-arch service from Camilo Vargas and tried to enter a pass to Rafael Baca, who found himself in the area. At that time, the backward rejected the intention and tried to get the ball away as soon as possible, but a rebound on the leg of the Chaco son directed the football to the right corner of the field.

The ball seemed lost, so the red-and-black defenders did not try to rescue it. Antuna thought differently and led a sprint to rescue the ball before it left the field. His effort was satisfactory and, thanks to the inadequacy of his bookmark, he had time to control and settle down before sending a center. At that time he took advantage of the qualities of Santiago Giménez.

The son of Chaco showed his qualities as a center forward and was stealthy to win the backs of the two defenders who tried to reject the center. He hit the ball with a big head and smashed it into the crossbar. Camilo Vargas tried to react, but when he found himself in the air, number five had already bounced behind the goal line. The score was set to one to zero in favor of the locals.

The encouragement of the people in the seats of the Azteca Stadium was an incentive for the celestial 11 to try to search for the second score. The pressure did its job and the rojinegros made a mistake in defense that almost cost them the second goal against. Antuna tried, this time, a mid-range shot, but Camilo Vargas diverted the bombshell. The blackboard did not move again until the end of the match, although the rednegros stalked with danger.

Social networks were not indifferent to the Brujo's performance, since it is not the first time that it has been decisive for Cruz Azul to score three points. “I thank Chivas for letting Antuna go”, “Uriel Antuna drew water from the stones”, “The Antuna Warlock is on fire”, “What do you tell me about the recovery of the Antuna Warlock”, “Antuna should be a starter in Qatar” and “Is there anything Antuna doesn't do well”, were some of the opinions of the fans on Twitter.

Three days before playing for La Máquina, the Colossus of Santa Ursula scored a goal by Uriel Antuna with the Mexican National Team. Tata chose him as the starter in the match against El Salvador and was in charge of scoring the first goal of the match by taking advantage of a rebound in the small area. He opened the score only in the 17th minute, but was still decisive for the rest of the match.

Although he joined for the 2022 Clausura dispute, Antuna has already exceeded the minutes he played all last semester with Chivas. Likewise, he records a couple of scores and is two more than equaling his record with the Sacred Flock. The notable improvement in its performance could make it one of the 26 elements that will compete in the Qatar 2022 World Cup with the Tricolor.

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