Cruz Azul, Mexico's great hope in this Concacaf Champions League, is looking to seal the pass to the semifinals on Wednesday's visit to a CF Montreal that doesn't know the victory this year.
As a local, 'The Cement Machine' enjoyed opportunities to improve its 1-0 win in the first leg of the quarterfinals, sealed with a lone goal by Uriel Antuna.
Despite that minimum income, Cruz Azul ended up being the Mexican squad with the most chances of getting into the semifinals of the main concacaf club tournament.
The other two teams in the competition, Leon and Pumas, need to overcome 3-0 handicaps on their visits to the Seattle Sounders and New England Revolution, respectively.
Cruz Azul was thus Mexico's great asset to prolong a 16-year hegemony in this tournament, which awards a ticket to the FIFA Club World Cup.
Fifth-placed in the Clausura-2022 of Mexican football, Cruz Azul took some air over the weekend with his 2-1 victory against neighboring Pumas, with a spectacular scissor target by Paraguayan Juan Escobar.
Now the pupils of Peruvian Juan Reynoso focus on the regional tournament, which they have not won since 2014, and on maintaining an advantage against CF Montreal that was less than they would have wanted.
“I am aware that each match is a different story. They will have a hard time scoring goals there,” said Reynoso.
- “Difficult situation” -
CF Montreal, for its part, does not rule out surprising on Wednesday at the Olympic Stadium and prolonging a particularly sweet year for Canadian football, whose selection is practically qualified for the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
For Montreal it is a good opportunity to get their season back on track, in which they count their matches by defeats.
“Right now we are in a difficult situation with our schedule,” acknowledged coach Wilfried Nancy after being beaten 4-1 on Saturday by New York City FC, his third defeat in the North American football league (MLS)
“I'm not going to complain about us playing the Champions League. We have to focus and get the job done,” demanded the French strategist, Thierry Henry's replacement in 2021 on the Canadian bench.
The game will start on Wednesday at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal at 8:00pm local (00h00 GMT on Thursday).
Possible lineups:
CF Montreal: Sebastian Breza - Zachary Brault-Guillard, Alistair Johnston, Rudy Camacho, Joel Waterman - Zorhan Bassong, Ismael Kone, Victor Wanyama, Djordje Mihailovic - Joaquín Torres y Lassi Lappalainen. DT: Wilfried Nancy.
Cruz Azul: Jesus Corona - Jose Martinez, Juan Escobar, Pablo Aguilar, Adrian Aldrete - Luis Mendoza, Carlos Rodriguez, Erik Lira, Uriel Antuna, Angel Romero - Santiago Gimenez. DT: Juan Reynoso.
gbv/ol
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