Match preview: Santos Laguna vs. Monterrey

Game: Club Santos Laguna S.A. de C.V. vs. Club de Fútbol Monterrey

Date: Sunday, March 11th

Time: 8:00 p.m. Eastern, 7:00 p.m. Central, 6:00 p.m. Pacific, 12:00 a.m. UTC

Venue: Estadio Corona TSM (Torreón, Coah.)

Referees: REF: Jorge Isaac Rojas Castillo, AR1: Pablo Israel Hernández Luna, AR2: Juan Carlos Salinas Salinas, 4TH: Jorge Antonio Pérez Durán

Television: United States - Univision Deportes Network; Mexico - ESPN2 Norte, Azteca 7

Streaming: Fanatiz, fuboTV (Free trial + monthly subscription), Sling (Free trial + monthly subscription)

Photo by Natalia Perales/Getty Images

There’s no place like home for Santos Laguna (6W 2D 2L), who have won five of their six matches in the 2018 Clausura at Estadio Corona TSM. The lone blemish was a 0-0 draw against Club Tijuana (4W 4D 2L) back in Week 5. They return to Torreón after defeating Necaxa (3W 4D 3L) last week in Liga MX play and beating Tampico Madero in Copa MX play on Tuesday.

Part of the reason that Santos has been so successful is the play of Djaniny Tavares. The Cape Verdean striker has 12 goals going in to the week, five more than Tigres UANL (5W 3D 2L)’s André-Pierre Gignac and more than Liga MX co-leaders Avilés Hurtado and Mauro Boselli were able to amass in seventeen games last season.

The worry though is that beyond Djaniny, Santos doesn’t have much in the way of an offensive threat. Beyond Djaniny, Santos has only five players who have scored - none of which have more than one goal.

This will be of little comfort to Monterrey (4W 3D 3L), who lost their last Liga MX match to Puebla (5W 2D 3L) by a score of 3-1 and drew Querétaro FC in Copa MX play on Wednesday. The aforementioned Hurtado has scored three goals in his eight appearances, and both Arturo González and Rogelio Funes Mori have four goals in Liga MX play.

Photo by Azael Rodriguez/Getty Images

Monterrey has lost a bit of the air of invincibility that surrounded them in the 2017 Apertura. While they’re very much in the playoff picture, the +2 goal differential and one win in their last five Liga MX matches should be cause for concern for Rayados fans. It won’t be an easy ask to go to Torreón and get points.