Olimpia’s dominant first half makes difference at Diriangen

DIRIAMBA – Honduran giants Olimpia delivered a dominating performance in a 4-0 win over Diriangen of Nicaragua in the first leg of the 2022 Scotiabank Concacaf League quarterfinals on Thursday night at the Estadio Cacique Diriangen in Diriamba, Nicaragua.

The inaugural SCL winners from 2017 wasted no time in getting to work on finding a goal and they took a 1-0 lead barely four minutes into the match on a sensational left-footed strike from Brayan Moya, who collected a ball off a hop and swung a shot into the top right corner of net.

Olimpia could smell blood in the water and they grabbed a 2-0 lead in the 19’ when an inch-perfect cross from Edwin Rodriguez met the diving forehead of Jerry Bengtson, who smacked a header into net.

Rodriguez then traded in his playmaking hat for a goalscoring one, as he latched onto a deflected ball at the top of the area and hammered home a right-footed shot to extend the Olimpia advantage to 3-0 in the 41’.

True to their competitive spirit, Diriangen weren’t about to throw in the towel and they had several looks at goal in the second stanza, including a good hit from Junior Arteaga in the 81’ that brought out the best save of the night from Olimpia GK Edrick Menjivar.

But the night belonged to Olimpia and Jorge Benguche capped the commanding win with a strike in second half stoppage time to complete the 4-0 scoreline.