Guadalajara had a great night, in front of a packed Akron Stadium and in full communion with their fans, they fulfilled the predictions by beating Mazatlán FC 4-1 this Saturday night, in the last match of the Clausura 2023, and thus achieved several goals. For starters, they secured their direct pass to the Playoffs by securing third place overall with 34 points, which equaled their best record in the history of short tournaments and also tied their best goal-scoring quota in the last 26 tournaments by scoring 28 goals.
The goals
- Chivas opened the account at 11', after Alan Mozo put in a cross that was done as if he had handed it to him and 'Pocho' Guzmán appeared in the heart of the area to send the ball into the net with a cross-shot that left the goalkeeper as just another spectator.
- The second came 9 minutes later through a great play by the Mozo-'Nene'-Alexis trident, which ended with a shot by Vega that bounced off the goalkeeper in the small area and the ball ended up in the net.
- The Sinaloan team responded immediately through Andrés Montaño, who sent a low shot that hit the base of the left post with a shot that was impossible to save.
- Guadalajara extended their lead at 56', after 'Piojo' Alvarado pressured the Mazatlecos at the start and caused them to accidentally give the ball to 'Pocho', who first touched it to Alexis Vega, who simply left it for 'Nene' Beltrán to take it as it came and send it into the cage.
- 'Cone' Brizuela came off the bench to give the match a scoring touch, as at 75' he sent a killer diagonal from 'Chicote' Calderón into the net.
The dangerous ones
- At 1', Carlos Cisneros unleashed a low shot that Néstor Vidrio deflected and the ball went just wide.
- At 33', 'Wacho' Jiménez saved a point-blank header.
- At 38', 'Pocho' Guzmán received the ball with his back to goal, turned between 3 defenders and shot, but his attempt was too wide.
- At 50', 'Tiba' Sepúlveda put on his hero's cape when he avoided almost on the line the equalizer for the Mazatlecos, when 'Wacho' was already beaten.
- At 51', Alexis tried his luck from long distance, but the ball went inches wide.
- At 89', the 'Cone' received the ball inside the area, shook off the goalkeeper and then took a delayed touch for Ronaldo Cisneros to simply push the ball into the net, but Gutiérrez recovered and prevented the fifth goal from being scored on the line.
- Guadalajara had scored one more in the added time, but the referee disallowed it for offside by 'Polllo' Briseño.
Guadalajara 2-1 Mazatlan FC
(Víctor Guzmán at 11', Alexis Vega at 20')
(Andrés Montaño at 21')
Referee: Óscar Mejía García.
Lineups:
Guadalajara: 23 Miguel Jiménez, 2 Alan Mozo, 3 Gilberto Sepúlveda (AM at 63'), 13 Gilberto Orozco (AM at 28') (4 Antonio Briseño at 80'), 26 Cristian Calderón, 28 Rubén González (29 Eduardo Torres at 70'), 20 Fernando Beltrán, 5 Víctor Guzmán (6 Pável Pérez at 80'), 24 Carlos Cisneros (11 Isaac Brizuela at 70'), 10 Alexis Vega and 25 Roberto Alvarado (18 Ronaldo Cisneros at 70').
D.T. Veljko Paunovic.
Mazatlán FC: 1 Daniel Gutiérrez, 3 Néstor Vidrio, 4 Efraín Orona (AM at 49'), 18 Enrique Cedillo (5 Facundo Almada at 45'), 19 Raúl Sandoval (29 Fernando Illescas at 78'), 6 Roberto Meraz (AM at 79'), 21 Eduard Bello (AM at 35')(8 Josué Colmán at 45'), 22 Andrés Montaño (35 Jefferson Intriago at 45'), 7 Yoel Bárcenas (184 Omar Moreno at 69'), 10 Nicolás Benedetti (AM at 63') and 25 Miguel Sansores (AM at 63').
D.T. Rubén Omar Romano (AM at 32').
