It is done. Bad luck has been warded off. CF Montreal won 3-0 (3-1 on aggregate) against Santos Laguna on Wednesday in a show game at Olympic Stadium.
Posted at 10:09 p.m.
Montreal thus advances to the quarter-finals of the CONCACAF Champions League. While avenging his 2009 nightmare against the same club, in the same competition.
Romell Quioto, committed as much as possible in this match, opened the scoring in the 9thand minute. Djordje Mihailovic scored with a superb strike in the 22ndand. Then Ismaël Koné, who was playing his first minutes as part of a very first tenure with the club, materialized a golden chance in the 61and.
The 13,343 supporters gathered at the bottom of the Olympic Stadium enclosure had a whole game of their favorites to eat, and gave equal energy in return.
Santos Laguna has a porous defense this season in Liga MX (13 goals against in 6 games). The Guerreros are currently languishing in the depths of their domestic championship.
What’s more, two of the centre-backs who started the match at Torreón, Matheus Doria and Félix Torres, were injured for Wednesday’s game. Hugo Rodríguez and Franco Pizzichillo replaced them in central defence.
CF Montreal took advantage of this. To the chagrin of dozens of Mexican supporters gathered in sections 147 to 151 of the stadium.
And it was Eduardo Sebrango, legendary striker of the Montreal club who had notably scored 3 goals in the previous confrontation, who rang the bell for the group of supporters 1642 Montreal.
The first time Sebrango was able to run, he was doing it to celebrate a superb streak that led to Romell Quioto’s great success.
From midfield, Victor Wanyama sent a deep lob to the right towards Mathieu Choinière. The Quebec player, one of the best on his team on Wednesday, then served a sublime pass (we weigh our words) to Quioto. The trajectory of Choinière’s ball was art. The leather passed behind two Lagunian defenders, then joined the attacker in the area. Quioto got rid of a final Guerrero, then the goalkeeper, before sending the ball with his right foot into the net from a completely tight angle.
At 1-0, the mark followed the course of play from the start of the match. We were already tied in the home and away series.
Then, at the 22andDjordje Mihailovic forced Sebrango to swing his arms a second time.
A good passing game between Lassi Lappalainen and Kamal Miller sent the ball to Quioto in the box. He put his foot on the globe, then immobilized it… to finally find Mihailovic at the edge of the six meters. The American went up, up, then took a powerful left-footed shot. The ball hits the crossbar and hits the strings violently.
Even so, Santos Laguna still only needed one goal to advance to the quarter-finals at this point.
And Ismaël Koné was able to take advantage of his golden opportunity to reassure supporters… and witnesses to the collapse of 2009.
It was the very first tenure with CF Montreal for the young Koné, a 19-year-old player from the Academy. They were also his first minutes with the first team. If his start to the match was a bit complicated, he found a great way to catch up.
At the 61and minute, Joaquín Torres skillfully passes to Djordje Mihailovic in the 6 meters. The latter sends his right foot towards the center, Lassi Lappalainen lets pass… and the ball finds Koné near the penalty area. Bang. 3-0.
Arriving at the club only on Wednesday, striker Kei Kamara replaced Quioto at 75and. We also saw defender Alistair Johnston for the first time in a Montreal uniform. The Canadian international was inconvenienced by COVID-19 until last week.
The Ultras, who oppose the change of identity of the club, had made it known before the meeting that they would not be present at this match or the next ones.
In the quarter-finals, CF Montreal will face the winner of the series between Hamilton’s Forge FC, in CPL, and Cruz Azul, another Mexican club. Hamilton lost 1-0 in the first leg at home and will travel to Mexico for the second leg on Thursday.
Montreal kicks off its MLS season at 1 p.m. Sunday against Orlando City SC in Florida.