Everything that could go wrong went wrong. Chivas played a great first half, but a goal polemically disallowed goal by VAR and a missed penalty kick conditioned the destiny of the match, which was leveled in the second half and at the end of the day neither Chivas nor León damaged one another this Wednesday night at Estadio Akron, on match day 4 of Apertura 2022.
Well-aware on the urgency of a positive result, Guadalajara tried its luck at the 6th and 14th minutes, but the attempts by Alan Mozo and Gilberto Orozco were not on target. At the 19th minute, Cristian Calderón picked a ball inside the box and managed to get a shot on a tough position due to the coverage on him but Rodolfo Cota managed to send it to the corner kick. Three minutes later, the Tapatía squad played the ball well from behind the pitch thanks to a series of passes veteen ‘Piojo', Vega and ‘Nene', who at midfield opened up for Mozo, who sent a one-touch cross but ‘Tepa’s’ header went wide.
At the 25th minute Alexis literally scored the goal of the year after picking up a second ball from the box and sent the ball to the top right corner, but after checking the play on VAR, the referee decided to disallow it due to an alleged offside by ‘Tiba', who at the moment of the shot was standing behind Cota. At the 38th, ‘Nene’ opened up the play to Vega who drove the ball a few meters and then sent a chipped cross looking for ‘Tepa', who headed the ball but the header lacked strength. During stoppage time, ‘Chicote’ missed the opportunity of leaving to the dressing room ahead in the scoresheet after Cota stopped his penalty kick.
The first minutes of the second half were intense but with no clear occasions for neither of the sides. At the 53rd, ‘Wacho’ flied to avoid his goal from falling after saving a crossed shot from Mena with the tips of his fingers. El Rebaño answered through ‘Chicote', but his potent shot from near the edge of the box passed very close the right post. At the 60th, ‘Piojo’ tried his luck with a free kick but the ball went above the crossbar. Four minutes later, VAR once again intervened and took the polemic decision of expelling Olivas for stepping on an opponent.
At the 77th, ‘Wacho’ made another act of presence under the 3 posts by containing a tricky shot from Luchas Di Yorio. At the 84th, Elías Hernández shooted near the edge of the box but his attempt went wide. At the 90th, ‘Charal’ managed to dribble some opponents but was stopped right before facing the goalkeeper one-on-one. Guadalajara’s next fixture will be on Friday against Juventus in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Guadalajara 0-0 León
Referee: Jorge Antonio Pérez Durán
Estadio Akron
Line ups:
Guadalajara: 23 Miguel Jiménez, 2 Alan Mozo (booked at the 37th)(24 Carlos Cisneros at the 75th), 3 Gilberto Sepúlveda, 15 Luis Olivas (sent off at the 61st), 13 Gilberto Orozco, 26 Cristian Calderón (16 Miguel Ponce at 90’+3’), 28 Rubén González, 20 Fernando Beltrán (29 Eduardo Torres at 90’+4’), 25 Roberto Alvarado (booked at the 51st)(6 Pavel Pérez 90’+1’), 10 Alexis Vega and 62 José González (booked 39’)(11 Isaac Brizuela at 75).
D.T. Ricardo Cadena
León: 30 Rodolfo Cota, 25 Paúl Bellón, 26 Fidel Ambriz, 23 Byron Castillo (booked at 43’), 24 Osvaldo Rodríguez (34 Óscar Villa at 87’ (booked at 90’’)), 8 Iván Rodríguez, 10 Luis Montes (17 Jorge Price at 78’), 13 Ángel Mena (20 Alfonso Alvarado 67’), 12 Joel Campbell (Yairo Moreno 67’), 7 Víctor Dávila (11 Elías Hernández 78’) and 18 Lucas Di Yorio.
D.T. Renato Paiva.
