Cruz Azul, nine games without a win in Monterrey
La Pandilla defeated The Machine 3-2 at the BBVA Stadium, to record their eighth victory of the campaign.
Monterrey continue as Cruz Azul’s bête noir. The Sultana del Norte’s 3-2 victory in Week 13 of the Apertura 2022 was the ninth time that Cruz Azul returned home from Monterrey territory without a win.
The Machine’s last win as guests of Monterrey was in Week 17 of the Clausura 2013 tournament when they thrashed the hosts 1-5 with Argentinean striker Mariano Pavone netting a hat trick Luis Perea and Teófilo Gutiérrez completing the rout.
But since then, Cruz Azul have had no luck against Monterrey, who have won three of the past nine encounters while six have ended level, figures which indicates that the Machine have not been completely overwhelmed in these fixtures, but they were denied victory once again this time around.
The other two Monterrey victories occurred in the Apertura 2018 tournaments at the semi-final stage when the Rayados won 1-0 and 3-1 in Apertura 2014. While the draws were recorded in the Clausura 2022 tournaments - 2-2 in both Clausura 2019 and Clausura 2018, while in Apertura 2016 the match ended 1-1, as did the Week 8 game in the Apertura 2015 and the Clausura 2014 meeting ended without goals.
This latest result represents the first defeat for the new sky-blue coach Raúl Gutiérrez, while Monterrey strengthen their position at the top of the standings, levekl on 28 points with América, having played one game more.
Rayados meanwhile record their eleventh victory at home in the 28 previous meetings in which they have scored 42 goals and conceded 40.