Andre-Pierre Gignac’s goal gives Tigres advantage over Leon in Liga MX semifinals

Tigres will take a 1-0 advantage to San Nicolas de los Garza after defeating Leon at the Nou Camp in the 2016 Liga MX Apertura semifinal first leg.

Leon were hailed as one of the more in-form teams in the league but will be disappointed with their last outing, as they nearly squandered a 3-0 lead against Xolos de Tijuana in the quarterfinals. Meanwhile, Tigres arrived to this match after a 5-0 thrashing of Pumas.

At home, Leon were unusually subdued by Tigres’ defensive unit and struggled to break down their opponents, who grew into the game as the minutes went on.

After a scoreless first half, a diagonal pass after 10 minutes from Ismael Sosa picked out Andre-Pierre Gignac, and the former Marseille man did well to finish past William Yarbrough to give the visitors the lead.

At the other end, Mauro Boselli missed a glorious chance to level the score when he failed to connect a header from point-blank range following a great pass from Fernando Navarro.

Boselli’s mistimed header was by far Leon’s best chance, with Ricardo “Tuca” Ferretti’s side finishing the game as the better side.

Despite not grabbing a second, Tigres will be much the happier of the two teams ahead of Saturday’s second leg at the Estadio Universitario, where Leon will need score twice to have any chance of progressing to the final.