Tijuana (Mexico), 8 Jan. Cruz Azul drew 1-1 this Sunday with the Xolos de Tijuana in an alternating dominance match with numerous stops, on the first day of the Clausura 2023 Mexican soccer tournament.
The Argentine Lisandro López converted for the Xolos and the Mexican World Cup player Carlos Rodríguez did it for the Blues.
Led by the Argentine Fernando Valenzuela, Tijuana was better in the first half, in which they had possession of the ball in their favor, 51-49.
The goalkeeper of the Blues, José de Jesús Corona, saved his team a couple of times, but a foul in the area caused a penalty in favor of the local team, well taken by López, in the 46th minute.
Things changed in the second half in which Cruz Azul took possession of the ball and little by little advanced lines.
In minute 67 the Uruguayan Ignacio Riveros arrived with danger, but it was Rodríguez, who in minute 84 tied with a goal from a pass from Rodrigo Huescas.
The Blues ended up on top of their rival, however, the Xolos’ defense held on and avoided defeat.
A couple of hours earlier, the Tigres UANL led by Argentine coach Diego Cocca thrashed Santos Laguna 3-0 in their own stadium.
Diego Reyes, Frenchman André Pierre Gignac and Colombian Luis Quiñones converted for Tigres, who played with one more man on the pitch from the 62nd minute, when Santos lost striker Eduardo Aguirre by expulsion.
In another Sunday duel, Argentine Juan Ignacio Dinenno converted a penalty with four minutes remaining to give Brazilian Dani Alves’ Pumas UNAM a 2-1 victory over Juárez FC.
Alan Medina scored for Juárez and the Argentines Eduardo Salvio and Dinenno scored for the university students who played almost 20 minutes with one less player on the court.
On Friday San Luis beat Necaxa 2-3, while on Saturday Guadalajara defeated Monterrey 0-1 and América-Querétaro drew goalless.
In Aguascalientes, home of the Necaxa, Uruguayan Juan Sanabria, Brazilian Leonardo Bonatino and Spaniard Sabín Marino scored for Brazilian coach Andre Jardine’s San Luis. For the locals discounted Ricardo Monreal and Chilean Angelo Araos.
The Chivas de Guadalajara led by the Spanish coach of Serbian origin Veljko Paunovic beat Monterrey 0-1 with a goal from Alexis Vega and an outstanding performance by goalkeeper Miguel Jiménez.
Before, Querétaro kept the order of its defense and drew goalless with América.
This Monday the champion Tuzos del Pachuca of the Uruguayan coach Guillermo Almada will receive Puebla.EFE
gb/amd
(Photos)
:quality(85)//cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/4HX2TCJM5RE7TFH5DLZYPS6QHE.jpg)
