Chivas defeats América in the first leg of the quarter-finals
Chivas hosted Club América for the first leg of the quarterfinals at the Akron stadium and claimed the advantage after a fantastic goal from Cristian Calderón in the second half.
After 90 minutes Club América was better but they could not capitalize on their opportunities. The visiting team had 15 shots and eight of them were on target, but they failed to find the back of the net thanks to a great performance by Chivas goalkeeper Raúl Gudiño, who kept the clean sheet after 90 minutes.
Giovani dos Santos had clear chances to open the scoring in the first half, but he was not on his night as he missed two cleared opportunities. Thanks to Gudiño both teams returned to their locker rooms with a scoreless draw after 45 minutes.
Calderón the man of the match
The second half started with Club América being the most dangerous team, but just like in the first half, they failed to find the back of the net. In the 51st minute Dos Santos shot powerfully from outside the box and Gudiño controlled the ball.
Then in the 69th minute América’s midfielder Richard Sánchez shot from outside the box and the ball barely went wide. The visiting team was the most dangerous team until that point, but Chivas head coach Victor Manuel Vucetich made substitutions that would change the story of the game.
Jesús Calderón came on in the second half and in the 81st minute he controlled the ball and volleyed in to score the first goal of the game. There was nothing Guillermo Ochoa could’ve done to block the shot and Chivas took advantage of their home field to win the game 1-0. Now América has to do their job on Saturday at the Azteca stadium to advance to the semifinals of the 2020 Guardianes playoffs.