Argentina coach Santiago Solari’s America finished as leader of the Apertura 2021 tournament of Mexican soccer and secured his pass to the quarterfinals as the first favorite.
Al tie no scores This Saturday with the Monterrey coach Javier Aguirre, ninth in the standings, the ‘Águilas’ closed the regular phase of the championship with ten wins, five draws, two losses and 35 points.
The Solari team played more than 20 minutes with an extra man on the field and let go of the possibility of victory with a penalty missed by Colombian Roger Martínez; even so, the azulcrema team finished with six points more than Atlas and León and six above Tigres UANL, the others classified to the best eight phase.
The quarterfinals will be completed with the four winners of a play-off between the fifth to twelfth places in which Santos Laguna-San Luis, Toluca-Pumas UNAM, Puebla-Guadalajara and Cruz Azul-Monterrey will face on November 20 and 21.
The day started on Thursday, when the Atlas of Argentine strategist Diego Cocca beat Querétaro 2-0 with goals from Argentine Julio Furch and Mexican Christopher Trejo to qualify for the league.
With 3-0 Saturday routs, León and Tigres also reached the quarterfinals, León by beating Necaxa with three goals from Chilean Víctor Dávila, and Tigres by defeating Juárez FC, with a pair of goals from Uruguayan Nicolás López and one from Mexican Juan Pablo Vigón.
López finished tied for the top scorers’ lead with Argentine Germán Berterame, from San Luis, who failed this Sunday in his team’s 0-0 draw at the home of Santos Laguna.
In one of the most anticipated meetings of the weekend, Pumas UNAM gave a show of pride and defeated Cruz Azul with a pair of goals from the Brazilian Diogo de Oliveira, one from the Mexican Arturo Ortiz and another from the Argentine Favio Álvarez.
With three goals scored by Roberto Alvarado, the ‘blues’ of the Peruvian coach Juan Reynoso went to rest with a 1-3 advantage, but Pumas of the Argentine coach Andrés Lillini came out to kill or die and conceded three goals to a shy blue sky, matches in the middle of the field and with bad aim in the area.
Pumas qualified for the play-off, a phase that reveals the mediocrity of the Mexican soccer competition system. While six teams were eliminated after 17 games, another four will be out for the result in 90 minutes of play.
On other results of the last day, on Friday Puebla defeated Toluca and Guadalajara 1-0, Mazatlán 0-1 and this Saturday Tijuana beat Pachuca 3-2.
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