It didn’t look good for Santos. Coming into the match, their only victory had been in the first leg of the Concacaf Champions League match against CF Montréal. They then lost the second leg, and then had to face one of the best teams in the league on their own turf, taking on Cruz Azul at Estadio Azteca. They however played with a confidence that has been missing, downing Cruz Azul 2-1 on the back of a superhuman performance from Carlos Acevedo.
Both teams started out a bit slow, but that changed quickly. Santos had a decent chance in the third minute after Brian Lozano drew a foul just outside of the box, then hit the resulting free kick just over the bar.