Match recap: Santos Laguna 1, Monterrey 0

Julio Furch was once again the difference maker for Santos Laguna, as the hosts defeated Monterrey 1-0.

Monterrey went with a 5-1-3-1 formation, opting to add in center back Axel Grijalva and central defensive midfielder Eric Cantú to try and stifle Santos’ attacking force of Julio Furch and Jonathan Rodríguez.

It wouldn’t go as planned.

In the 17th minute, Jesús Angulo played a fantastic through ball to Furch into the box. Furch was able to outmuscle José María Basanta and hit an angled shot past Marcelo Barovero to give the home side the lead.

Monterrey almost equalized in the 36th minute when Dorlan Pabón picked the pocket of José Juan “Gallito” Vázquez in the Santos box. He played a square ball to the wide open Guillermo Madrigal, whose shot missed the wide open net.

The second half was considerably less exciting. Neither team had many good looks at goal as Santos played a bit conservatively with the lead. The best chance came near the 80th minute when Matheus Doría put one past Barovero with a fantastic move off of a corner kick, however it was correctly ruled offside.

In the 85th minute, referee César Ramos went to VAR to check on a possible foul by Doría on Madrigal, however he ruled Doría did not commit a foul and just awarded Rayados a throw in.

Gerardo Alcoba made his firs apprearance since Week 3 for Santos when he came on in the 90th minute for Brian Lozano.

Santos will head to Querétaro to face Gallos Blancos on Sunday, while Monterrey will host Cruz Azul in the Copa MX Final on Wednesday before Veracruz comes to town for Liga MX play on Friday.

Club Santos: Jonathan Orozco; Jesús Angulo, Matheus Doría, Martín Nervo, José Abella; Brian Lozano (Gerardo Alcoba, 90’), José Juan Vázquez, Osvaldo Martínez, Jesús Isijara (Deinner Quiñones, 66’); Jonathan Rodríguez (Ayrton Preciado, 82’), Julio Furch

Monterrey: Marcelo Barovero; Leonel Vangioni, José María Basanta (Jesús Gallardo, 65’), Nicolás Sánchez, Axel Grijalva, Edson Gutíerrez; Eric Cantú (Celso Ortíz, 73’); Avilés Hurtado, Rodolfo Pizarro (Rogelio Funes Mori, 70’), Dorlan Pabón; Guillermo Madrigal

Scoring: Club Santos - Julio Furch (17’); Monterrey - None

Disciplinary: Club Santos - None; Monterrey - Eric Cantú (Yellow - 72’)