Santos Laguna took advantage of the extra point in the penalty shootout to eliminate Atlanta United (5-3) and advance to the Round of 32 of the Leagues Cup, despite not having scored a single goal in the tournament.
Nacho Ambriz’s Warriors were unable to unlock the MLS team’s lock, although they did not create enough danger to do so and the match ended in a sad goalless draw in regular time.
The green and white team arrived at the penalty shootout with one point in Group East 7 – compared to two for Atlanta – and therefore needed to win the series to advance from the Group Stage.
It should be noted that the tiebreaker criterion in the Leagues Cup is not the goal difference, but the result of the direct confrontation. In this case, Santos advanced thanks to the fact that they converted all their penalties and defeated Atlanta United 5-3.
The controversy of the match came in the 54th minute when Anthony ‘Choco’ Lozano and Xander Silva were sent off for an argument, but minutes later the referee went to the VAR to review the actions and rectified his decision by showing only a yellow card to each.
In this way, Santos was saved from becoming the fifth team eliminated from Liga MX in the Leagues Cup after Rayados, Xolos, Querétaro and Puebla.
The Warriors will face the winner of Group East 1: New York City FC or FC Cincinnati, who will meet on Monday for a ticket to the Round of 16.
