CF Montreal faced two scenarios on Wednesday night: a narrow 1-0 victory in regulation time that would have required a shootout, or an unequivocal, clear cut victory. He took the means to carry out the second scenario.
Opportunistic in attack, hermetic in defense, the players of CF Montreal have accomplished their mission and will continue their journey in the Concacaf Champions League following their 3-0 victory against Santos Laguna in the second leg of their eighth series. final, in front of 13,343 spectators at the Olympic Stadium.
Romell Quioto, Djordje Mihailovic, in the first half, and Ismaël Koné, in the second half, scored the nets for CF Montreal.
Koné’s goal was his first in a Montreal uniform, in his very first game. It turned out to be important because it increased the team’s room for manoeuvre.
Thus, CF Montreal concluded this two-way duel with a 3-1 advantage in the cumulative score.
In the quarter-finals, on a date yet to be determined, CF Montreal will face the winners of the duel between Cruz Azul, another team from Mexico, and Forge FC, a Canadian Premier League club based in Hamilton.
These two teams will play the second leg Thursday night in Mexico with Cruz Azul up 1-0.
Almost perfect
Last week, on the field of Santos Laguna, CF Montreal suffered a 1-0 loss in a duel where they were largely dominated and conceded a goal towards the very end of the match.
However, according to Mihailovic, the team’s players had no heads between their legs when they returned to Montreal.
“We approached this match with a little too much anxiety because it was our first of the year,” explained Mihailovic.
“And even though we allowed a goal in the last two minutes, we were confident that we could pull off something special here tonight, which we did. Today, in my opinion, was an almost perfect match. »
Wednesday night, the Montreal team imposed its pace from the start and never experienced any really worrying moments.
Eight days after blocking seven balls, goalkeeper Sebastian Breza only had to stop two shots to sign the shutout.
“Of course, we won the match 3-0, but what I remember from that match is that I felt that the players were on a mission. I felt that the players didn’t care who we were going to play against,” said head coach Wilfried Nancy, who was still hesitant to talk about a perfect match.
“After the Santos Laguna game there, when I spoke with (the players), with the staff, when we did the meetings, they said to me, “we will make some adjustments and we will go there. ”. I’m proud of that because the players are starting to take ownership of what we want to put in place,” added Nancy.
While waiting for the quarter-final round, CF Montreal will begin its 11th season in MLS on Sunday afternoon by visiting Orlando City SC.
Stems to the rescue
The CF Montreal players had an excellent start to the game, much better than the match played in Mexico last week.
After the first half hour of play, the Montreal squad already had five shots attempted and four corners. By way of comparison, it had been limited to seven shots attempted and only one corner for the entire first clash.
During this interval, the Montreal color carriers obtained two shots on target, the same number as in the first leg, but with very different results.
Quioto opened the scoring in the ninth minute with a remarkable shot from an almost impossible angle.
After a fine cross from Mathieu Choinière, Quioto managed to push the ball out of the reach of goalkeeper Carlos Acevedo, who had come out of his net.
The Honduran managed to collect the ball just before it rolled over the baseline and skillfully managed to direct it towards the empty net. The shot hit the left vertical rod before branching into the goal.
Less than a quarter of an hour later, in the 22nd minute, Quioto crafted a second goal that the Montreal team absolutely needed to take the lead in the aggregate score.
Posted at the entrance to the penalty area, his back turned to the net, Quioto slipped the ball to Mihailovic, placed just to his left.
Mihailovic managed to force his way between two defenders and unleashed an incisive left-footed shot that hit the underside of the crossbar before ending its course behind the keeper and into the net.
At the very end of the first half and early in the second half, the Montreal squad came close to tripling their lead.
Frustrated in the 53rd minute by a fine save from Acevedo, Koné recovered in the 61st minute, thanks to a shot fired from the center of the penalty area, after a nice back pass from Mihailovic.