Harold Preciado’s incredible miss costs León

Santos Laguna battled eight up until the end, but no matter how hard they fought, they will miss out on the Apertura 2023 quarter finals - eliminated after losing 3-2 to León. However, their destiny could have been very different, had a late effort entered to send the game to penalties.

Santos were up against the ropes, trailing 3-0 by the start of the second half, but they refused to give in and managed to pull two goals back in the last minutes of the game. Because the score was very close, match official César Ramos Palazuelos decided to add seven minutes of stoppage-time.

The visitors piled forward in a desperate attempt to get an equaliser and came very close as the dying seconds. Following a corner in the 97th minute, Harold Preciado pounced on a loose ball inside the six-yard box and shot goalwards, however, the ball bounced agonizingly off the crossbar.

The Colombian was left ruing a chance that would have sent the tie to a shootout. In the end, it wasn’t to be, Santos bow out while León advance to the next round where they will face América in the quarter finals, with the first leg to be played on Wednesday and Thursday this week with the deciding return legs a week later.