Pumas beats León 1-0 and remains in play-in positions

Mexico City. Pumas added three games without losing and managed to stay in the “play in” positions by beating León 1-0, this Sunday in a duel on matchday 15 of the Clausura 2024 tournament, played at the Olympic University stadium.

With two games remaining until the end of the regular phase, the Auriazules won three valuable points to reach 23 and place themselves in tenth place in the general classification, while the emerald squad remained in 11th place, with 20 units. However, both continue in the fight for playoff positions.

The university students showed off their offensive power from the beginning of the match, when César “Chino” Huerta combined in a play with Rogelio Funes Mori to invade the goal guarded by Rodolfo Cota; However, referee Daniel Quintero annulled the score for offside in the 12th minute.

The La Fiera team responded with dangerous approaches orchestrated by the experienced Andrés Guardado, which culminated in shots from Federico Viñas, José Alvarado and Edgar Guerra, but none managed to invade Julio González’s goal.

Given the impossibility of scoring by both squads, the game little by little became rough, so it was continually interrupted to mark fouls. In this way, both teams went to halftime without a score.

In the second half, the game became difficult for León starting in the 64th minute, when Alan Medina was sent off “for serious rough play” after committing a foul on Leonardo Suárez.

The referee’s decision caused a small fight on the field, so the spirits of both teams flared up.

Pumas took advantage of the confusion of the Esmeraldas and opened the scoring at 68, when Piero Quispe connected a pass to the center by Funes Mori with a right foot to make it 1-0.

León’s coach, Jorge Bava, tried to rescue at least the tie and sent two of his most dangerous players onto the field: Elías Hernández and Ángel Mena, but neither could harm the locals.

For its part, Pumas failed to take advantage of its numerical superiority and had to settle for a victory by the slightest difference.