Match preview: Monterrey vs. Santos Laguna

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

Date: Saturday, May 13th

Time: 9:06 p.m. Eastern, 8:06 p.m. Central, 6:06 p.m. Pacific, 1:06 a.m. UTC

Venue: Estadio BBVA (Guadalupe, N.L.)

Referees: REF: Luis Enrique Santander Aguirre, AR1: Jose Ibrahim Martinez Chavarria, AR2: Leonardo Javier Castillo Rodríguez, 4TH: Victor Alfonso Caceres Hernandez, VAR: César Arturo Ramos Palazuelos, AVAR: Jorge Abraham Camacho Peregrina

Television: United States - FOX Deportes; Mexico - TUDN

Streaming: fuboTV (Subscription), FOX Sports app

All-time record: Monterrey holds the all time edge, winning 34 to Santos’ 29 while the teams have drawn 29 times. In Liga MX play, Monterrey holds the 29 to 26 advantage with 27 draws. In the playoffs, Monterrey won their fourth championship 5-3 on aggregate in the 2010 Apertura. Santos won their fourth championship 3-2 on aggregate in the 2012 Clausura. They also met in the quarterfinal round of the 2018 Apertura with Monterrey winning that 3-0 on aggregate, again in the 2019 Apertura quarterfinal round where Rayados advanced 6-3 on aggregate en route to their fifth championship, and in the 2021 Clausura quarterfinal round where Santos advanced 3-2 on aggregate thanks to a late goal by Roni Prieto in the vuelta leg.

The clubs have also met in the Copa MX, with Santos winning twice to Monterrey’s once as well as in Concacaf Champions League twice with Monterrey winning both the 2011-12 Final 3-2 on aggregate and the 2012-13 Final on 4-2 aggregate. When the clubs met earlier this year in Monterrey, Santos beat Rayados 2-1 for their first win in Monterrey in over 20 years thanks to goals from Juan Brunetta and Harold Preciado while Monterrey’s lone goal was from Rogelio Funes Mori, who was sent of in the 40th minute. And in the opening round, the teams played to a 0-0 draw in Torreón.

Photo by Manuel Guadarrama/Getty Images

After a scoreless 90 minutes, Santos and Monterrey head four hours west on highway 400 to settle which team will be moving on to the semifinal round in the 2023 Clausura Liguilla. While both teams played the first 90 minutes cautiously, things will most likely be more open as both teams look to ensure they’re the ones who will be playing next Wednesday instead of cleaning out their lockers tomorrow.

Both teams will want to make better use of possession, as neither was able to create many good chances in the first leg. It will be interesting to see if Monterrey abandons the physical style of play in favor of one that’s less likely to see players carded.

The onus however is on Santos to score. A draw favors Rayados, since they’d advance thanks to their higher position on the table during the regular season. Santos will most likely look to be the aggressors from the start, and if they can nick an early goal it would benefit them greatly since they thrive on the counterattack.