Pachuca thrashes Rayados, the best defense of the tournament

Pachuca had no mercy against Rayados and thrashed them 5-2 with goals from Nicolás Ibáñez (8′, 84′ and 90+2′), Romario Ibarra (23′) and Paulino de la Fuente (47′) to leave with a comfortable advantage to the second leg.

Los Tuzos were one of the best teams playing at home in Apertura 2022, only losing one game out of 10 played and they arrived with the mission of opening the best defense in the tournament, which received just 13 goals in 17 days. Monterrey had only lost two games of the last 10 playing as a visitor, they had not lost since August 23 when they fell to Chivas at the Akron stadium and also had five consecutive games without conceding a goal.

Both teams met on the last day of the regular phase and ended in a goalless draw at the Rayados stadium, a bad precedent if one considers that now the people from Monterrey will have the obligation to seek victory by three goals or more to reach the final. of the tournament against America or Toluca.

The actions did not take long to explode inside the Hidalgo stadium, because first the locals set the pace back and forth to seek to unbalance their rivals. They found the answer, even from the tactical stoppage, from Vucetich, who also made it clear that he was looking to leave with a favorable result for the second leg.

Before the 10 minutes of the game, Nicolás Ibáñez was reunited with the goal after a month of drought after pushing a ball to the far post in a corner kick that bounced in the small area. The answer was immediate and, also by way of the stopped ball, Héctor Moreno equalized the cards at minute 16 with an accurate header above the Hidalgo mark.

The rhythm did not stop and Romario Ibarra put Pachuca ahead again by taking advantage of a long ball towards the heart of the area that went down and defined under Andrada’s exit at 23′. When it seemed that the Tuzos would go into the break with the advantage, Luis Romo equalized with a powerful shot from outside the box in the 42nd minute that Ustari missed over his right post.

Several situations marked the complement, the first was the departure of Avilés Hurtado due to injury that gave Paulino de la Fuente entrance and scored the third for the locals two minutes into the complement. The game process changed to 64′ when Érick Aguirre was expelled for a kick to Hinestroza’s abdomen, who did not continue in the match due to the strong blow.

Despite the fact that the following minutes were all for Pachuca, a whiplash ended in an inattention by Óscar Ustari and he committed a penalty on Gallardo. What seemed like 3-3 ended in tragedy, as the goalkeeper from Tuzo stopped Funes Mori’s charge and practically on the next play, Nicolás Ibáñez extended the advantage after the penalty committed against Érick Sánchez at 86′.

Already without encouragement, Rayados received one more goal on a rebound that Ibáñez took advantage of inside the area to go three goals behind in the second leg in the so-called Steel Giant.