Tijuana Xolos sweep past directionless Atlas

Tijuana Xolos 3 : 0 Atlas

On a glorious night in Baja California, Xolos swept past Atlas 3-0 to advance to a Liguilla two-legged tie against Cruz Azul.

Raul Zúñiga scored two first half goals and the expected Atlas fight back simply did not materialise.

Kevin Castañeda added a third for Xolos late on but the outcome was never in doubt.

In fact Atlas goalkeeper Antonio Vargas made a string of outstanding saves to keep the scoreline respectable and Xolos hit the woodwork twice more. Five or six goals would have been a fair reflection of Xolos’ domination of this match.

Atlas had arrived from defeating Chivas, their Guadalajara city rivals away and it seemed to have taken a great deal out of them. They had trouble moving out of first gear and were all over the map, as Xolos created multiple first half chances.

It took just four minutes to open the scoring when Zúñiga fired home from the edge of the penalty box. 16 minutes later, he doubled the lead with the Atlas defence totally discombobulated, Alejandro Gómez providing the pass.

Before half time, Vargas denied Diego Barbosa and Castañeda twice. More efforts were blocked and Fernando Monárrez hit the post while Vargas palmed another onto the bar.

Long before Castañeda finally and deservedly got his name on the scorersheet, a swathe of substitutions were breaking up any flow the game had.

Castañeda was booked for a foolish dive while Raymundo Fulgencio, Aldo Rocha, Paulo Ramírez and Matheus Dória spurned what few chances Atlas created.

Xolos now welcome the best side in the country, Cruz Azul, for the home leg at the Caliente and on this form, can have some grounds for optimism.

Overall, Xolos had 62.9% of possession and 22 shots, eight of which were on target in a performance they will hope to repeat this Wednesday.

Attendance: 17,333