Necaxa hands Santos Laguna first loss of the season
Necaxa hosted the undefeated Santos Laguna on matchday 5 of Liga MX from the Estadio Victoria in Aguascalientes. Santos looked to continue its unbeaten streak against a Necaxa team who had not won since the 2nd week of the season. While celebrating its 96th anniversary as a professional team, Necaxa would go on to celebrate further as it handed Santos Laguna their first loss of the season.
The first half was all about Santos Laguna’s Brian Lozano. Santos began the first period with Gerardo Arteaga winning a free kick in the Necaxa half. Lozano took advantage by blasting a dangerous ball from about 30 yards out that that hit the top crossbar.
The action intensified in the 37th minute when Brian Lozano got by his defender to beat the Necaxa goalkeeper with a left-footed shot inside the box. The Necaxa players asked the referee to review a foul they thought began the Santos attack on goal, and after a VAR review, the referee negated Lozano’s goal and booked the Santos striker with a yellow card.
Lozano would have another chance goal just a few moments later when a Necaxa player blocked a shot on target with his hand. Lozano was able to get a free-kick at goal that stunned everyone by again hitting the top of the crossbar. Santos was in command of a game that had numerous shots on target from both teams but that ultimately ended tied at the half.
The second period of play began with one of the most definite chances at goal so far from either team when Adrian Lozano missed at an empty goal. The play started on the right side of the box with Brian Lozano finding a streaking Erick Castillo who cut behind his defender and found an open Adrian Lozano in front of the goal, who sailed it high.
The miss by Lozano would end up coming back to hurt Santos as moments later Necaxa would strike with a long-range goal. After winning the ball in their half, Necaxa pushed the ball forward quickly with some trickery from Claudio Baeza who eluded defenders and passed the ball towards the top of the 18-yard box. Here Maximiliano Salas would launch a left-footed strike from long range to beat the Santos Laguna goalkeeper and open up the score for the home team.
Salas secured a brace scoring his second goal of the afternoon in the 65th minute. The goal originated from a free-kick cross just inside the halfway line that landed in the box for Mauro Quiroga, who headed a pass to Salas. The Argentine forward controlled the ball with his chest and kicked a right-footed shot that ricocheted off a sliding Santos defender and into the back of the net.
The visiting team turned up the intensity after finding itself down 2-0 with less than 30 minutes of play left. Santos would again hit the crossbar this time it was Diego Valdés who from the left side of the 18-yard box smashed a ball that would hit the metal once again and keep the game 2-0. The Santos Laguna offense would have numerous chances at getting on the board but were unable to capitalize time and time again. Club Necaxa made it a rout in stoppage time when a corner kick cross was headed in by Mauro Quiroga to secure Necaxa their second win of the season.
Necaxa will travel to Guadalajara next week to face Chivas and continue to build off a convincing win against a formidable Santos team. Santos Laguna will matchup next week against Los Rayados de Monterrey in what will undoubtedly be a tough matchup after today’s loss.
