Puebla beat Santos Laguna 3-2 at Estadio Cuauhtémoc on Saturday evening in the fifth round of the Liga MX Apertura. The result keeps the hosts in eighth place with six points from their opening games, while the visitors remain rooted to the bottom of the table with just one point after six matches.
The visitors took the lead early on when F. Almada turned the ball into his own net in the fourth minute, but E. Mustre quickly restored parity with a goal of his own nine minutes in. By then the match had already shown its uneven character — Santos controlled territory but Puebla were dangerous on the break and refused to go away.
After the interval E. Bullaude put Puebla ahead in the 51st minute, and Mustre struck again five minutes later to make it 2-1. Santos finally pulled one back through C. Baltazar in the 62nd minute, but the hosts kept their side in it and saw the game out despite the visitors' pressure.
Puebla's statistics tell the story of a match fought rather than played. They held just 38 per cent possession and created one big chance against zero for the opposition, yet converted their opportunities while Santos squandered theirs. The visitors had 94 attacks to 85 and 62 per cent of the ball, but their shots on target totalled only two.
The result leaves Puebla on 10 points in eighth and Santos Laguna on one point in 17th. The hosts had come into this game with mixed recent form, but the three points extend their unbeaten run to two matches and tighten the gap to the teams above them.