Once again Tijuana’s Xolos squandered their lead in the final minutes of regulation time, and for consecutive weekends the one who made the mistakes is goalkeeper Cirilo Saucedo.
Friday night seemed like a perfect night to take a much needed victory over Santos and it appeared that would be the case. Until the 89th when they found the goal to end the game with 1-1 draw.
In a match were both teams did not create a lot of opportunities their stars produced goals.
For the Xolos, Fidel Martinez scored in the 47th minute after Fernando Arce sent a sensational pass to the unmarked forward easily beat goalkeeper Oswaldo Sanchez with a gentle touch to the right side of the goal.
But with a minute left in the game, a hero emerged for the opponents. The player was Oribe Peralta who fought throughout the game and finally created a chance and took his shot in a play were Saucedo should have stopped the ball but instead deflected the ball towards Jesus Escoboza who simply pushed the ball into the net.
Xolos coach Jorge Almiron said the result was not what he expected.
“We are upset about the result but Santos played well late in the match,” he said. “Our team had a great effort and it played hard earning the tie. We wanted to win but we took it as far as we could.”
