MIAMI, Florida – Mario Martinez scored to give Marathon of Honduras a 1-0 win over Nicaragua’s Diriangen in the first leg of their 2021 Scotiabank Concacaf League Preliminary Round series on Tuesday night at the Estadio Nacional in Managua.
Diriangen had the stronger start between the two sides, with Carlos Torres wreaking havoc on the Marathon defense in the first half. Torres had a pair of chances to lift the home side into the lead, but ran into a wall with Marathon GK Denovan Torres, who made back-to-back saves to keep things scores.
Later on in the half, the Marathon shot-stopper was called on again to tap a header off a corner kick over the bar.
Meanwhile, Marathon were poking and prodding from distance with a couple shots, but nothing that truly troubled Diriangen GK Justo Lorente.
It was a different story to start the second half, though, as Marathon grabbed a 1-0 lead in the 49’ when a Martinez free kick made its way through a sea of players and past Lorente to hand the Catracho club the advantage.
¡Mario Martínez anota para abrir el marcador! @CDMarathon 🇭🇳 gana 1-0 | #SCL21 pic.twitter.com/aZcWjzsG8M
— Concacaf (@Concacaf) August 4, 2021
Marathon looked for more and Martinez nearly had a second goal on another free kick, but his effort struck the crossbar.
Diriangen would get a final look at goal in the 80’ to try to pull level when a bouncing cross reached the charging Carlos Torres, only to see his shot fly over the crossbar.
📹 RESUMEN
— Concacaf (@Concacaf) August 4, 2021
En los primeros minutos del segundo tiempo, @CDMarathon 🇭🇳 obtuvo la mínima ventaja para el partido de vuelta.
#SCL21 pic.twitter.com/K07B0wKoOu
