Pumas defeated Huacares 5-1 in the third round of Liga MX's Apertura tournament on Friday night. The visitors moved up the table while the hosts extended their winless run to seven matches. Juninho opened the scoring with a penalty before adding two more goals himself.
He converted from the spot in the eighteenth minute and followed up with another in the twenty-second. The twenty-second minute is when you notice the pattern — Pumas were already camping in the final third, and Huacares had nothing to show for it. R. Morales added a goal in the fortieth, then J. Rodriguez made it four before half-time with a strike in forty-fifth minute plus four. Juninho completed his brace in the forty-eighth, though by then the match was effectively over.
Pumas turned to the kids when needed, with five substitutions across the second half. H. Ortega came on in the forty-eighth, D. Garcia in the sixty-second, S. Cordova in the sixty-fifth, U. Antuna in the seventy-sixth, and V. Arteaga in the ninetieth. Huacares saw two yellow cards — U. Antuna for the visitors in the fifty-ninth, R. Fulgencio in the seventy-fourth, and Guilherme Castilho in the eighty-ninth.
The statistics tell the story without much elaboration. Pumas created three big chances with 2.7 expected goals, while Huacares managed zero big chances and 0.4 expected goals. The visitors took five shots on target with fifty per cent accuracy, compared to three on target for the hosts at thirty-eight per cent. Pumas completed 335 passes against 296 for Huacares, and had eleven more tackles as well.
And here's the thing about this result — Pumas move into seventh place with eleven points from seven games, three wins and two draws. Huacares remain bottom of the table with nothing after seven defeats. The clean-sheet run came to an end for the visitors, but they need the points badly if they want to climb further. By then, the relationship has soured between these sides, and the wheels came off quickly for the hosts.
