Tigres win with clutch Gignac goal, AGAIN!

With Atlético de San Luis leading Tigres 0-1 on Saturday night, they were poised to complete their second consecutive road upset (after defeating América 2-3). Despite the fact Tigres had mostly dominated through 70 minutes, they had nothing to show for it, other than a lucky Nahuel who could’ve been shown a red card for his antics on Jhon Murillo when he pulled his hair just before a corner kick.

However, a magnificent offensive display by the talented Tigres attack had other things in mind. After Carlos González nodded things up at 1 with a header, it all came down to Tigres’ main attacking piece: André-Pierre Gignac. A couple minutes after the game-tying goal, a free kick was left all up to the star French striker, who rocketed it off his right foot straight to the crossbar with a static Barovero as a simple observer. But that wasn’t the end of it. A couple minutes later, after Thauvin set up Soteldo for the assisting cross, an elevated Gignac met the ball with his head, sending it to the back of the net, past an again static Barovero. This ultimately sealed the win for Herrera’s club.

This win was Tigres’ 4th of the season. Gignac has scored in all 4 of those wins, He scored the game-winner in 2 of them and gave them a late lead in another. Those are his only goals of the season thus far. Simply put, when the Frenchman scores, Tigres win. That much has been true this season. But it’s not only the fact he has scored; it’s more the importance and timing of those scores that resound so much with everyone. They’ve been complete game-changers and game-settlers.

We’ve run out of examples to magnify his greatness and this just begins to look redundant, but Gignac simply doesn’t fail to impress. We very well could be witnessing the current best striker in the league, not to mention the greatest striker ever to put on a Tigres’ jersey, and we shouldn’t fail to point it out whenever he decides to prove it time and time again. Despite all the newer, younger, faster, and arguably equally talented pieces around him, it’s clear the heavyweight and center piece in this offense continues to be the ex-Lorient, ex-Toulouse, and ex-Marseille striker that arrived six and a half years ago. Through six matchdays, his team marches T-2nd in the league table, one point behind league-leader Puebla. As long as he’s around, Tigres continue to be a top title contender.