A first half where Jesús Corona was the hero, but the entry of Charly Rodríguez woke up La Máquina and achieved the equalizer
Cruz Azul salvaged a point during their visit to Tijuana, after they drew 1-1 with Xolos on the first day of Clausura 2023, a game in which La Máquina was saved by Jesús Corona and Carlos Rodríguez, who scored the only goal of the celestes, after Lisandro López had been in charge of opening the scoring.
The local team imposed conditions from the first moments of the game, but it was not until 20 minutes when they were able to disturb Jesús Corona’s goal, through a shot from Fernando Valenzuela, who were the best men in each squad during the first part of the match .
Jesús Corona appeared again to save his goal three times in less than 10 minutes. At 23 ‘he stopped a shot from Braian Romero; at 28 ‘he again launched to save a shot by Fernando Valenzuela and at 23’, he managed to deflect a ball that came out of Lucas Rodríguez’s cleats, which still hit the post before going for a corner kick.
Cruz Azul shook off Tijuana’s dominance and managed to take his first shot at the rival goal until 36′, at which time Michael Estrada was close to opening the scoring with a header, but Víctor Guzmán took the ball off the line, even that fell on Rafael Guerrero, who tried to pierce the frontiers’ goal, but José Antonio Rodríguez leaned back to keep the round.
The VAR appeared at 43′ to review an action in which Ignacio Rivero brought down Fernando Valenzuela inside the light blue area, for which Daniel Quintero Huitrón, the central referee, sanctioned a penalty after he observed the play through the screen.
Lisandro López was in charge of taking the ball and although he took a shot without much force or placement, he managed to beat Jesús Corona, who despite guessing the side, the ball went under the goalkeeper.
For the complementary part, Cruz Azul changed position and began to play in the area of the rival court, in addition to no longer waiting to attack the counterattack. However, Jesús Corona saved Cruz Azul again at 74 ‘with a double save, at which point he dived to stop a shot by Lucas Rodríguez, stopped and with his right foot covered Joaquín Montecinos’ counter-shot.
Despite the fact that La Máquina already had more possession of the ball, they did not manage to generate dangerous actions until 84′, at which time Rodolfo Rotondi sent a cross from the left wing, which Rodrigo Huescas took and sent the ball into the patch. penalty, where Carlos Rodríguez appeared to tie it with a right hand.
Already in added time, the Machine was close to scoring the winning goal, through an individual play by Rodolfo Rotondi, who, again from the left wing, crossed for Carlos Rodríguez, a footballer who finished off first, but the The ball ended up hitting the local goal post.
