The Alajuelense Sports League of Costa Rica sealed its place in the semifinals of the Concacaf Central American Cup by beating Motagua of Honduras 1-2 in the second leg of the quarterfinals played at the José de la Paz Herrera National Stadium, in Tegucigalpa, before about 20,000 spectators.
The Honduran team went on the attack with plays from the extremes and the center, and in the first ten minutes they lost three clear chances to score through Luis Vega, the Argentine Rodrigo Gómez and the Panamanian Jorge Serrano.
While Alajuelense (LDA) could not find a way out of the siege of Motagua, which played very orderly in all its lines.
The Honduran club, led by Spaniard Javier López, took the lead in the 24th minute with a penalty goal taken by Argentine Rodrigo Gómez.
The goal made Alajuelense react, which advanced ranks and looked for the tie, which they achieved in the 30th minute with a great goal from Joel Campbell, who with a powerful volley shot, sent the ball to the right corner of the Motaguense goal defended by Luis Ortiz, who until then had been just another spectator of the game.
Ortiz also had to work hard on two other shots by the visitors Fernando Piñar and one by Jeison Lucumi. The match had already been tied and was back and forth, with Motagua with more arrivals, until the first half closed with a 1-1 tie.
In the second half the game was more even, with LDA having greater possession of the ball, as in the first episode, but with many inaccuracies from the attackers of both teams.
When the 90th minute was played, Alajuelense, in a counterattack, sealed their classification to the semifinals with a pass from Diego Campos, who in the area received a pass from the right and after lowering the ball with his chest, shot across the back of the “catracha” net.
An ugly setback for the Honduran team that had come into the match with the 0-1 lead they achieved on the 23rd in the first leg played in Costa Rica.
This is how they aligned
– Motagua (1): Luis Ortiz Christopher Meléndez, Sebastián Cardozo, Luis Vega, John Klever Portillo (Mathías Vázquez, d.84); Jonathan Núñez (Luis Santamaría, m.66), Jorge Serrano (Giancarlo Sacaza, m.85), Denis Meléndez, Rodrigo Gómez (Luis Meléndez, m.84), Carlos Mejía (Jefryn Macías, m.59) and John Oliveira.
– Coach: Javier Lopez.
– Alajuelense (2): Washington Ortega Kenyel Michel, Aaron Salazar (Alejandro Bran, m.75), Alexis Gamboa, Guillermo Villalobos; Fernando Piñar (Elian Quesada, m.88), Jeison Lucumi (Diego Campos, m.46), Rashir Parnkins, Anthony Hernández (Tristan Démétrius, m.88); Joel Campbell and Ronaldo Cisneros (Doryan Rodríguez, m.75).
– Coach: Oscar Ramirez.
– Goals: 1-0, m.24: Rodrigo Gómez, penalty. 1-1, m.30: Joel Campbell. 1-2, m.90: Diego Campos.
– Referee: Julio Luna, from Guatemala. He showed yellow cardboard to John Oliveira, from Motagua, and Aaron Salazar and Joel Campbell, from Alajuelense.
– Incidents: 4th round return match. of the final of the Concacaf Central American Cup played at the National Stadium in Tegucigalpa.
