Santos Laguna-Montreal evokes memories of legendary series

MIAMI, Florida – The Draw for the 2022 Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League revealed a slew of intriguing match-ups, but one in particular evokes memories of a legendary series played more than a decade ago.

It was the inaugural SCCL in 2008-09 when Mexico’s Santos Laguna squared off against the Montreal Impact (now CF Montreal) in the quarterfinals.

Montreal, at that time a member of USL Pro, had qualified as the 2008 Canadian Championship winners, while Santos were winners of the 2008 Liga MX Clausura.

Over 55,000 fans packed into Montreal’s Olympic Stadium for the first leg and they went home happy after a 2-0 win for the home side. The hero of the night was Eduardo Sebrango, who scored in the 5’ and the 77’ to deliver a big 2-0 win for the Canadians.

That set the stage for a dramatic second leg in Torreon the following week and an early goal from Christian Benitez in the 16’ had the Liga MX side off and running with a 1-0 lead.

But Montreal would strike back and pick up two huge away goals through Roberto Brown in the 24’ and Sebrango in the 38’, to make it 2-1 in the game to Montreal and 4-1 on aggregate, with Santos in need of four goals to advance.

The Mexican hosts would chip away at the deficit during the second half thanks to a pair of scores from Matias Vuoso in the 52’ and 75’, but as time ticked over into second half stoppage time, Santos were still in need of two goals.

What would transpire next will forever remain part of Concacaf lore.

In the 90+2’, Darwin Quintero got Santos to within a goal with an excellent finish and then three minutes later in the 90+5’, Quintero would turn into a club legend with another strike to deliver Santos a 5-2 win in the game and an improbable 5-4 victory on aggregate.

Now, 13 years later, these two teams will face off again in a knockout round series in the 2022 SCCL Round of 16. Overall, Montreal own a 1W-4D-3L record against Mexican opposition, while Santos have stockpiled a 13W-3D-4L mark against teams from MLS, which should make for a very competitive 180 minutes of football.