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Santos And Atlante In Semis
The two previous champions of Mexican football advanced to the semifinals. Santos continued en route to defend their title, while Atlante benefited from a better regular season record to advance.
Nov 30, 2008 4:21:23 PM
Second Leg
Saturday, 29 of November
San Luis 1 - 2 *Santos
*Atlante 1 - 1 Tigres
*Advances to the Semifinal round
San Luis 1 - 2 Santos
(Aggregate Score: 2 - 5)
Santos Laguna earned their ticket to the semifinal round of Apertura 2008, with a 2-1 victory against San Luis in the second leg of their quarterfinal series. The series aggregate score was 5-2 in favor of the current champion.
The encounter was more complicated than the score suggests, since the Gladiadores jumped on the field at full-throttle and with the sole intention of scoring the goals they needed to advance.
In the early minutes, San Luis rampaged the opposition and forced the Guerreros towards their own half.
It was in the 16th minute when the locals efforts would be rewarded when they received a free kick in the outskirts of the penalty box.
Colombian midfielder Jairo Patiño took a powerful, swerving shot that was slightly deflected by Santos midfielder, Juan Pablo Rodríguez, and defeated an outstretched goalkeeper Oswaldo Sánchez for the first goal of the match.
With the early 1-0 lead, San Luis had revived aspirations and continued in search of the second goal that would see them through for the rest of the first half.
In turn, Santos was slow to get into the game and they were not able to handle the proposal of their rival, which resulted in few activity in the offensive end.
Heading into the final 45 minutes of the series, San Luis had fulfilled the first part of their objective which was to score a goal in each of the halves and all they needed was the second goal for their advancement.
The Guerreros were slow to rectify their situation, but as the second half progressed began to impose their style with the benefit of the running of the clock and the pressure of the opposition.
In the 80th minute, the visitors would deliver a blow at the expense of San Luis when defender Diego Cervantes suffered a second yellow card after he tripped up Santos midfielder Walter Jiménez inside the box for a penalty.
The penalty was perfectly executed by Cuauhtémoc Blanco to the right of San Luis goalkeeper Adrián Martínez, for the 1-1 parity in the second leg and further advantage in the series for Santos.
Being a man down and obligated once again to score a pair of goals, the Superlider fell dramatically in the final minutes of the encounter.
Santos took advantage of the situation when Blanco filtered a perfect ball to Jiménez inside the box, he then touched it to Daniel Ludueña who touched it into an empty net with no problems in the 86th minute.
With the 2-1 second leg result and 5-2 aggregate, Santos continue in perfect form and advanced to the semifinal round in defense of their title.
For their part, San Luis will have to settle with being the most dominant side of regular season after they succumbed to the "curse" of the Superlider and were eliminated from the Liguilla.
Atlante 1 - 1 Tigres
(Aggregate Score: 2 - 2)
Atlante took full advantage of league regulations and advanced to the semifinal round thanks to their better regular season record, after their 2-2 aggregate score parity against Tigres.
The second leg of this quarterfinal series ended with a 1-1 draw between Potros and Tigres, in a match celebrated on Saturday night in Cancún.
Similar to the previous encounter of the night, the most desperate team came out playing real good football and generating opportunities by way of Lucas Lobos and Guillermo Marino.
Tigres took control of the first half and were almost rewarded for their proposal in the 25 and 32 minutes, when Guillermo Marino came close on both occasions to hand the Nuevo León side the ticket to the next round.
However, an early Tigres dominance would not be enough.
When it appeared that the scoreless draw would prevail, Atlante playmaker Gabriel Pereyra took a wonderful strike that curved past the fingertips of goalkeeper Óscar Pérez and into the angle of the goal for the 1-0 lead right before the break.
There was nothing Tigres could have done to prevent Pereyra’s wondergoal, but going down further in disadvantage in the series was a huge blow to their first half efforts.
With the partial score, Atlante had increased their possibilities and with their dominance at the start of the second half began to consolidate their position in the semifinals.
On the other hand, Tigres was not the same side from the first half and coach Manuel Lapuente introduced forward Blas Pérez to incite a reaction.
The modifications by Lapuente did not show much improvement, instead it facilitated the complete territorial dominance of Atlante who controlled the actions of the match without any major complications by the regiomontanos.
Despite the situation of the encounter, Tigres would receive a gift for their aspirations.
In the 73 minute, Lucas Lobos delivered a dangerous cross towards the goal that was deflected by both Atlante goalkeeper Federico Vilar and defender Javier Mustafá, and redirected into their own goal for the definitive 1-1 draw.
The final minutes of the match were nerve-wrecking, because a goal at this stage for either team would prove lethal.
In the end, the own goal proved to be too little, too late for Tigres, as Atlante effectively managed the remaining minutes of the encounter and earned their pass to the next round of the Liguilla.
This series proved to be one of the most even quarterfinal encounters of the playoff phase, since the overall parity on the field was also reflected in the 2-2 aggregate score.
-- César García covers México for Goal.com.
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