MONTREAL – CF Montréal overcame a 1-0 deficit from the First Leg in Mexico to defeat Santos Laguna 3-0 (3-1 on aggregate) Wednesday night at the Olympic Stadium in the Second Leg of the Concacaf Champions League Round of 16. Romell Quioto and Djordje Mihailovic scored in the 10th and 22nd minute respectively before Ismaël Koné put the game out of reach with his first career goal in the 61st minute in his first game with CF Montréal.
With the result, CF Montréal advances to the quarterfinal round of the tournament which will take place from March 8 to 10 (First Leg) and March 15 to 17 (Second Leg) in Montreal against the winner of the tie between Cruz Azul and Forge FC. The return leg of that series will be played Thursday at Estadio Azteca.
MATCH NOTES :
-With an assist on Romell Quioto’s goal, Mathieu Choinière became the third Homegrown Player to collect a goal or an assist in Champions League play.
-Defender Alistair Johnston and forward Kei Kamara earned their first starts with the Club.
-Goalkeeper Sebastian Breza collected his first Champions League clean sheet. Breza made nine saves through both legs.
-Romell Quioto will miss the First Leg of the quarterfinals due to yellow card accumulation.
WILFRIED NANCY
“My takeaway from tonight is that I felt my players were on a mission. They weren’t preoccupied with the opponent. After the match in Mexico, we told ourselves we would make some adjustments. And I’m pleased because the players are starting to absorb what we want to put in place. We played against a great team and did something good. We won the match with our style of play offensively and defensively. The goal is to repeat this kind of performance. We’re on the cusp of a new season. Many teams have added new players. The competition will be tough, but we are ready for it.”
DJORDJE MIHAILOVIC
“We went into that first game in Mexico a little anxious because it was our first of the season. But we left the game optimistic despite the result. When we came back to Montreal, we were confident we could do something special. It was our first game. And the things we tweaked were done right and tonight was a near perfect game. We have a good idea of what we want to accomplish this year. We are a confident young team. Last year was a growing opportunity to make heads turn. We ended the year with a trophy and brought that momentum into this competition. We played a fantastic game tonight against a team that broke this club’s heart a while back. And now it’s about looking forward to the start of the MLS season.”
