Monterrey, led by Spaniard Sergio Ramos, who beat Puebla 4-2 on Friday, and Italy’s Joao Pedro, of San Luis, were confirmed as the best teams in the Mexican Apertura, at the end of the seventh round of the championship today.
Spaniard Sergio Canales scored three goals to leap into the scoring sub-lead with five goals and become the hero of Ramos’s Rayados, who added their sixth consecutive victory and reached 18 points, one more than América and Cruz Azul, winners of their respective matches.
Argentine Lucas Ocampos scored the other goal for Monterrey, while Ricardo Martín and Carlos Baltazar scored for Puebla.
In one of the most anticipated matches of the weekend, Brazilian coach Andre Jardine’s America kept up their good form with a 2-0 win over Pachuca.
Chile’s Igor Lichnovsky and France’s Allan Saint-Maximin scored one goal each to give América the victory in a match played behind closed doors.
Lichnovsky converted a pass from Alejandro Zendejas in the 20th minute and Maximin scored in the 71st minute on a counterattack.
América is second in the standings on goal difference ahead of Cruz Azul, a 2-1 winner over Argentine coach Gabriel Milito’s Chivas de Guadalajara, who continued their downward slide.
Argentinians José Paradela and Rodolfo Rotondi scored for Nicolás Larcamón’s Azules, who have now won their fifth consecutive match.
In another Saturday match, Argentine world champion Angel Correa scored his third goal of the championship to give Tigres UANL a 1-0 win at the Santos Laguna stadium.
Correa has half the goals of Joao Pedro, who was blanked on Friday in his San Luis team’s 1-3 loss to champions Toluca.
Coached by Argentine Antonio Mohamed, the Diablos are in fifth place after defeating San Luis with goals from Alexis Vega, Paraguay’s Robert Morales and an own goal from Román Pérez.
In other matches, on Friday Juárez FC beat Mazatlán 1-0 with a goal by Colombian Oscar Estupiñán and on Saturday León defeated Querétaro 3-0 with two goals by Panamanian Ismael Díaz and one by Fernando Beltrán.
Pumas UNAM beat Atlas 1-0 and Uruguayan coach Sebastián Abreu’s Tijuana defeated Argentine coach Fernando Gago’s Necaxa 3-0.
The Apertura will resume with the eighth round from September 12 to 14.
Matches of the eighth round of the Mexican Soccer Aprtura:
Friday 12.09: Necaxa-Juárez FC and Mazatlán-Pumas UNAM.
Saturday, September 13: Pachuca-Cruz Azul, Tigres UANL-León, Atlas-Santos Laguna, Toluca-Puebla and América-Guadalajara.
Sunday, September 14: Querétaro-Monterrey and San Luis-Tijuana, according to EFE.
For more information, visit QuéOnnda.com.
