Chivas winning run comes to an end with 3-1 defeat to Pachuca

Pachuca brought Chivas back to reality with a 3-1 victory at the Estadio Chivas on Saturday.

The Rojiblancos had arrived to this match on a run of three straight Liga MX victories, while the Tuzos came on the back of four straight without a defeat.

It was the Tuzos who took an early lead on just nine minutes when Chivas’s defense failed to deal with a free kick from the right-hand side and Franco Jara was there to poke home the breakthrough.

Chivas, though, leveled the score twenty minutes later when Eduardo “La Chofis” Lopez’s cross was mishandled but deflected into the path of Angel Zaldivar, who slammed in the equalizer.

The joy for the hosts was short-lived, and moments later, Miguel “Wacho” Jimenez performed one of the blunders of the season, gifting Franco Jara the ball with an empty net. Jara then gave possession to Pablo Lopez and the 20-year-old scored to regive Pachuca the lead.

Four minutes after the break, Zaldivar missed a good opportunity to equalize when he failed to control the ball inside the box from a Chofis cross.

Minutes later, Zaldivar missed another header while coach Jose Saturnino Cardozo opted to bring on attacking reinforcements from the bench.

But in the 71st minute, Jara essentially sealed the win for Pachuca with his second goal of the game. A play from the left finished with Victor Guzman setting up Jara for an easy header and the 3-1 scoreline.

With the defeat, Chivas will finish the week in the bottom half of the table with 10 points, while Pachuca momentarily move up to ninth in the standings with 11.