2012 CCL Quarters: Morelia vs. Monterrey

Monterrey's Jesus De Nigris strikes. (Rayados.com)

So this matchup is the only quarterfinal to pit two Mexican Primera sides against each other. Monterrey is the defending CCL champs, meanwhile Morelia has been flying high in the league. I looked for Morelia to do better honestly.

The match started out a little tentative on both sides. The clubs traded possession a bit, but there were no chances carved out until Edison Toloza put Morelia's first shot high in the 17th minute. After that, Morelia seemed to begin to warm to the task.

Their possession became much more steady and they started to hem Monterrey in close to their own penalty area. In the 20th minute Rafael Marquez Lugo rolled a shot on goal, but their best chance came in the 22nd minute. Edgar Lugo took a cross in the area and put a bullet header on target. Jonathan Orozco stuck out his left leg, and the ball barely deflected wide off of his shin. It really should have been 1-0.

Then just a few minutes later, Monterrey struck first against the run of play. In the 28th, Mauricio Romero took down Angel Reyna Martinez just inside the 18, resulting in a penalty kick for Monterrey. Humberto Suazo stepped up and nailed the spot kick to make it 0-1 to Monterrey.

Morelia responded right away to giving up the all important away goal, engineering a couple more quality chances before halftime. Marquez Lugo nearly struck again in the 37th, but Orozco denied him. Unfortunately for Morelia, Suazo added a second for Los Rayados in the 41st, taking a centering pass and slapping it inside the far post to make it 0-2 to Monterrey at the half.

Morelia did their best to climb back into the tie in the second half. Monterrey had surrendered a number of quality set piece chances, but just couldn't convert one. They did get their goal from the run of play in the 60th minute. Joel Huiqui took a gorgeous cross from Edgar Lugo and headed it into the back post to make it 1-2.

Had it stayed like that, Morelia might have felt better about their chances in the return leg. However, disaster struck in stoppage time. Monterrey sent in a shot in the 92nd minute, it was blocked but the ball ended up bouncing around in front of the goal mouth. Finally Abraham Carreno got a foot to it and tapped it in to give Monterrey the 1-3 win.

That will mean Morelia will have to score 3 goals at Monterrey and keep Suazo and company out of the net. I'm not real confident in their chances of accomplishing that.