To reach the tournament final Opening 2024 of the MX Leaguefor the Rayados del Monterrey and the Águilas del América only the victory this weekend against Atlético San Luis and Cruz Azul, respectively, in the return of the semi-finals (league) of the Apertura 2024 tournament.
With ties in the rematches, Atlético San Luis will reach its first final while Cruz Azul will continue its path for the title in a championship in which it has had a spectacular performance.
David against another Goliath
The first semi-final will take place on Saturday at the BBVA stadium, where at home, the Monterrey will try to rise from defeat 2-1 suffered on Wednesday at the Alfonso Lastras stadium.
“Losing is never good,” accepted Argentine Martín Demichelis, coach of Monterrey’s ‘Rayados’, but stressed that adversity is not complex for his team: “when you lose by the slightest difference, it is the best result; the series is totally open.”
Domenec Torrent, Spanish coach of San Luis, highlighted that his modest team has eliminated the Tigres in the quarterfinals and in the semifinals it has Monterrey in check, two of the most ostentatious rosters in Aztec football.
“We don’t have the names of other teams, but I’m proud of how my team plays,” Torrent commented and warned that on Saturday “we’re going to go out and win.”
If Monterrey achieves an aggregate tie, they will advance to the final due to their best position in the regular phase: they were fifth while Atlético finished sixth.
Taste of revenge
The second finalist will leave on Sunday from the Ciudad de los Deportes stadium where La Maquina del Cruz Azul will host the Águilas del América.
On Thursday in the same scenario, the first leg was tied 0-0. If equality persists in the global scoreboard, The pass would go to Cruz Azul because they were leaders in the regular phase and América finished eighth.
With a cautious game in the first leg, The Eagles were able to control La Maquina’s offensivebut on Sunday they will have to take more risks and overcome the precedent of the regular phase: a 4-1 defeat.
“Playing with Cruz Azul is always complicated because their midfield construction is very strong,” acknowledged Brazilian André Jardine, América coach.
Regarding the second leg, with the obligation to win, he admitted that “we know the degree of anxiety that the second game will bring us, but we have the capacity to show variations.”
For his part, Martin Anselmi, Argentine technical director of Cruz Azul, criticized América’s stance of playing by betting on error and guaranteed that on Sunday his team will remain faithful to its principles.
“The second leg is going to be tough, but we are going to go out and play in the opponent’s field, that is the essence of Cruz Azul,” said Anselmi.
For Anselimi and Cruz Azul, this semifinal is a revenge since in the previous tournament they lost the final against América de Jardine.
