The Argentinian Maximiliano Salas came from the bench and scored a penalty in discount to give him this Friday the Necaxa win 2-1 over Mazatlán FC on the sixteenth day of Mexican Opening tournament. Alejandro Zendejas also scored for the locals and the Brazilian Camilo Sanvezzo was discounted for the visitors. Necaxa climbed from thirteenth to eighth in the standings and remains in the fight for the play-off. Mazatlán fell to ninth place.
Argentine coach Pablo Guede’s Necaxa invaded the rival area from the start of the game. In the 8th, Raúl Sandoval finished off with his right foot and goalkeeper Nicolás Vikonis rejected. The goalkeeper returned to save Mazatlán at 33 by stopping a low shot from Uruguayan Ricardo Aguirre, who threatened to enter his right post. The local calls for attention were transformed into a goal in the 38th minute. Alan Medina entered the area from the right and crossed a pass that with a sweep Zendejas made it 1-0.
At the end of the first half, Mazatlán attacked with shots at 43 by Daniel Amador and at 47 by Iván Moreno, stopped by goalkeeper Edgar Hernández. In the second half, Vikonis was once again a key factor, deflecting a header from Rodrigo Aguirre in the 58th minute. In 68, Aguirre committed a hand and awarded a penalty to the visiting team. Sanvezzo He threw from eleven meters to Hernández’s right post and declared it 1-1.
Mazatlán tried to win the game, but Sanvezzo sent a shot over the crossbar and opened the door for Necaxa to score another goal. Roberto Meraz also committed a hand and gave a penalty to Necaxa, which Maximiliano Salas converted in 94 at 2-1 to the left post of Vikonis, who although he guessed he could not stop the ball.
For his part, the Uruguayan Christian Tabó scored this Friday one of the goals with which the Puebla defeated Juárez FC 0-2 as a visitor. Guillermo Martínez was the other scorer for Puebla, who rose to sixth place with 21 points and established himself in the play-off zone one day from the end of the regular phase. Juárez remained in the sixteenth position, still with possibilities of going to the playoffs. Puebla was the most offensive team in the first half, but lacked definition. In minute 24, Tabó shot over the crossbar and in minute 39, Uruguayan Maximiliano Araújo took a free kick that crashed into goalkeeper Hugo González’s left post.
The visitors remained the most dangerous in the second half, in which they signed the victory. In the 67th minute, Araújo leaked a ball to Tabó, who made three shots, two of them rejected by González, but the last one converted at 0-1. Immediately, at 70, the poblanos defined the party. George Corral, from the right wing, put a service into the area that Martínez, with a header, made it 0-2.
Matchday sixteen started on Thursday with Tijuana’s 0-2 victory at Atlas’ home. On Saturday, Santos Laguna will visit Querétaro, Pumas UNAM will visit Pachuca and Guadalajara will visit Tigres UANL. On Sunday the day will end with the Toluca-León, Cruz Azul-América and San Luis-Monterrey matches.
