Tigres soar past NYCFC reaches CONCACAF Champions League Semifinals.
The last time these two faced each other this year was on March 11th for the first leg of this series. Tigres walked away with a one-nil victory and it wasn’t until tonight that they came out to make a statement and dominate NYCFC in a four-zero victory making the global aggregate five-zero. Let’s break down tonight’s matchup.
Clear Dominance meant nothing
In the first 45 with more ball possession and more opportunities getting to the box, NYCFC was the clear dominant team. The scoreboard on the other hand stated differently. As Tigres managed to get on the board at the 30th minute of the match. Los Felinos top scorer André-Pierre Gignac keeps doing his thing with a solid header that bounces of Luis Barraza’s glove and into the top right corner of the box. Not soon after Jesus Dueñas from Tigres received a yellow card for a bad foul. At the 37th Gary Mackay-Steven also received a yellow for a bad foul. With those major key moments and the three minutes of added time, the whistle blew for the half. The score was one-zero.
A goal-fest seals the win
It was evident that Tigres wanted to keep that advantage so they could move on to the semifinals but no one expected that they would do it in a stellar fashion. Right as the second half started it did not take long for the Mexican Club to score once again. In the 49th minute, Leonardo Fernández scores with a beautiful backheel from a very close range with an assist from Luis Quiñones. In the 64th minute, Rafael Carioca scores with the second header of the night. Luis Quiñones with his third assist of the night as well.
The fourth goal of the night was scored at the 85th minute. A score by Javier Aquino who took a right-footed shot to the bottom left corner. The assist was by Gignac who was all over the place tonight with a goal and an assist. With this dominant performance, the final whistle blew and the Mexican team moves on to the Semifinals. They are set to face Olimpia de Tegucigalpa in a single-leg matchup on Saturday, December, 19th.
