The first finalist of the Concacaf Champions League is defined. Cruz Azul and Pumas face the second leg of the semifinal that will take place on the court of the Estadio Azteca this Tuesday, April 12 at 9:00 p.m., central Mexico time. The series has the university students with a minimal advantage having won the first game by two goals to one.
The celestes appear before their fans with the goal of overcoming the score. With the consideration of the goals scored as a criterion for the tie-breaking criterion in the tournament, those led by Juan Reynoso would achieve their qualification by winning by a goal to zero. However, the coach felino has stated that his team will propose to go on the offense and will not wait for those that the rival can raise.
“This is our demand. We are in the possibility of doing it (going back), but we have to prove it and tomorrow is a nice challenge. Tomorrow is a very important 90 minutes and we accept the responsibility of being favorites. The important thing for us is to pass the tie. If we didn't have anything to win, we didn't even show up,” said the Peruvian-born coach at a press conference prior to the engagement.
Although for now, they would be eliminated, Reynoso projected what the institution's intentions are in case of achieving the next FIFA Club World Cup. “Reintroduce a club and God willing we can overcome what Tigres did. That would be the illusion of what could be achieved today. Obviously we have to pass tomorrow's theme and the final against an American team. There are a lot of things at stake. Let's think about tomorrow first,” he said.
On the other hand, Andrés Lillini assured that the approach of his strategy will be made to achieve victory on the court of the Colossus of Saint Ursula.” We are going to look for win r, if we are going to see what Cruz Azul does we will have a hard time, we will form a team to attack and do the same thing that we have always done, from the first minute to play without speculation, this team cannot play to defend itself. Without speculation, we will put together a team to win, that's what worked for us,” he said.
In the current contest, the Pumas have left Saprissa on the road in the round of 16 with a comfortable result of six by three and New England Revolution in a series in which they recovered after losing the first game by three goals to zero (tied the aggregate and won in the penalty shootout). The group returns incredible things to us every four days, I am very excited to give back to the club everything it gives us. But also with this pressure not to escape. It's a little step, but very important,” added the coach auriazul.
Both institutions arrive at the match after having scored points as visitors in their respective Liga MX games. Both Pumas and Cruz Azul rescued a point on other people's courts. The university students tied for two scores against Puebla at the Cuauhtémoc Stadium and the cemeteros did the same with a score to one goal against Mazatlan in El Kraken.
The winner of the key will become the first finalist of the tournament. The other will come out of the series between Seattle Sounders and New York City (the partial result is three to one in favor of Washington), teams from the Major League Soccer of the United States. Whoever is the Mexican representative in the final, will have on their feet the possibility of continuing to extend the streak of teams in the Liga MX consecutive championship championship champions (since 2006). In fact, Pumas was the last team to lose a final to a foreigner.
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