MIAMI, Florida – Things will be on a knife’s edge on Wednesday night when Liga MX side Tigres welcome in the Vancouver Whitecaps of Major League Soccer (MLS) for the second leg of their 2024 Concacaf Champions Cup Round One series at the Estadio Universitario in San Nicolas de los Garza, Mexico.
The two sides played to a thrilling 1-1 draw in the first leg last week in Canada, with Vancouver appearing to be on the verge of a clean sheet victory, only for legendary Tigres striker Andre-Pierre Gignac to score on a late free kick for his 17th career Champions Cup goal.
Now they will renew acquaintances in the return leg in Mexico in the same venue where Tigres defeated Vancouver 2-0 in the 2016-17 Champions Cup semifinal first leg.
When it comes to second leg matches in knockout rounds of the Champions Cup, Tigres have a very favorable history of 10 victories, three draws and five defeats. They will be in pursuit of an 11th victory in that regard and will rely on the likes of Gignac, along with Guido Pizarro and Ozziel Herrera.
Pizarro had 99 passes in last week’s first leg, while Herrera matched Gignac for the most shots taken with four.
Vancouver showed plenty of spark in attack, led by Damir Kreilach, who tallied the lone Whitecaps goal. He also completed 86 percent of his passes, which complemented nicely the performance of teammate Pedro Vite who completed 42 passes.
In defense, Ryan Raposo was a workhorse in recovering four balls, while GK Yohei Takaoka stood tall with four saves.
Match Officials Tigres UANL (MEX) vs Vancouver Whitecaps FC (CAN)
REF: SAID MARTINEZ (Honduras)
AR1: CHRISTIAN RAMIREZ (Honduras)
AR2: WALTER LOPEZ (Honduras)
4TH: SELVIN BROWN (Honduras)
VAR: BENJAMIN PINEDA (Costa Rica)
VAR1: RICARDO MONTERO (Costa Rica)
