Paunovic: “We’re going to the capital with the objective of making the final”

Following a shock 0-1 win at the Estadio BBVA against Monterrey, Tigres UANL are the first finalists of the 2023 Liga MX Clausura competition as they wait for the action at the Azteca to conclude on Sunday night to discover their opponents in next week’s two legged final.

Given both teams final standings in the regular season, América hold a double advantage with a solitary Alejandro Zendejas goal giving Fernando Ortiz’s side an overall lead in the tie. ‘Ame’ fans are also aware that given their higher regular season standing (finishing second) with Chivas finishing third, the ‘azulcreamas’ will advance to the final even with a one goal defeat which piles added pressure on Veljko Paunovic’s men to win at the Azteca by two clear goals.

Speaking ahead of the Azteca clash, Chivas coach Veljko Paunovic cut a confident figure despite the arduous task ahead.

“I think we can beat anyone, we’ve shown that, we’ve turned things around many times and this Chivas side is capable of beating anyone. We still have to win against America in my time here and and with that challenge I’m going to get on the plane on Saturday and go to the capital, and I’ve been told that CDMX is also ‘red and white’.

‘Never give in’

The Serbian coach added: “the ‘Sacred Flock’ never give up and we are going to give everything, whatever happens we are going to go and give our all, in football you have to take your chances”.

“Now we have to score two goals difference, but this team is capable of scoring more than one goal away from home as well, in the first half of the game at the Akron we had five very good chances.”

“We need to translate these chances to goals and know that the more shots we have, the more chances we will have to open the scoring and create doubts in their team, but we have to be very solid in defence as well.”

We’ve been playing without a centre forward for a significant part of the tournament and we’ve been able to win, we’ve got this far”.