León hold on for win and continue their Mexico City dominance

León got their third win in Mexico City in 2019 and their third victory over a Mexico City team in Liga MX when they defeated Pumas in a wild encounter by a score of 3-1. Both teams finished the game with 10 players after two red cards, but it was León who was overly superior for most of the match.

The first half started with León dominating Pumas completely. With Luis Montes, Joel Campbell and Ángel Mena getting lots of space, they were constantly creating dangerous chances. It started with Luis Montes hitting the post with a long range goal. Later on, a mistake by Pumas goalkeeper Alfredo Saldívar gave the ball to Mena, who made a pass to José Juan Macías. Macías almost went through with a wide open net, but Idekel Domínguez was able to read the play and clear the ball.

The dominance continued, and after a great play by Montes, Macías was able to open the scoring. A couple of minutes later, it was Ángel Mena, who beat the offside and toyed with Domínguez and then proceeded to score. It was called offside, but after going to VAR, it was ruled a goal to put the score at 2-0.

León continued to dominated, and had Campbell not send a shot wide, he would have put La Fiera up a deserved 3-0 in the scoreline.

The second half had Pumas start playing better, but as soon as they did another setback hit them. Idekel Domíguez got two yellow cards minutes apart to leave Pumas with 10 players. With 10, Leon continued their domination and Saldívar made a great stop off a Macías shot.

León also came close when Macías had left Campbell wide open, but Pumas defense was able to clear when he decided to pass the ball back instead of shoot.

Pumas seemed to have gotten a lifeline when a foul by Macías was reviewed by VAR and the ref changed the original yellow card for a red, leaving both teams with 10. But even with 10, it looked gloomy for Pumas when Montes was brought down in the area. To most people’s surprise it was Campbell who took the penalty (instead of Mena) and Saldívar proceeded to stop it.

A couple of minutes later, Alan Mozo hustled for a ball in the area and send the ball to Carlos Gonzalez who scored for Pumas. It looked like there was a chance for Pumas and a long range shot from Juan Iturbe (who was subbed in and had a great game) hit the post.

León still fought back and Carlos Guerrero had his long range goal hit the post.

In the final minutes with Pumas going all out, Leon got the opportunity for a four on one counter attack and Vinício Angulo was able to score the goal to make it 3-1 and settle the score.

While Pumas put up a fight, the win should be worrisome because, although León is a red hot team right now, the level of dominance was on another level. The 3-1 scoreline doesn’t do justice to what happened on the field, and it’s already a big score. This is Bruno Marioni’s first loss as Pumas coach in all competitions. They will have to pick things up fast as they face a knockout round game against Zacatepec in Copz MX at home and then have to travel to Puebla for their Sunday Liga MX game against Lobos BUAP. Leon meanwhile is probably the team that is playing the best in Mexico. They will have to travel to Ciudad Juárez for their Knockout round match in Copa MX before going back home to face Santos on Saturday where they will be hopeful to continue their great level of play.