Four teams reached the semi-finals of the Liga MX Clausura this past weekend, with four waving goodbye to their silverware dreams.
As games ending in a draw would result in the team who finished higher in the regular season to reach the next round, the pressure was on for Monterrey, Pachuca, León and Necaxa to force a shock.
The brackets indicate the overall aggregate accompanied by the result of the second leg.
Who made it to the semi-final?
Toluca 2 (4) - (4) 1 Monterrey: Second leg win sends Toluca through
Los Rayados came out on top during a five-goal thriller in Monterrey, but with Luan García grabbing a late goal to reduce the deficit, Toluca knew that if they could win the reverse fixture by at least one goal, they would be the ones heading to the final four.
In the second leg at the Estadio Nemesio Diez, the hosts had a dream start due to a brilliant piece of individual work from Alexis Vega to take the lead after going down to 10 men as Henio Julio received a straight red card. Moments after the restart, Monterrey restored their one goal lead when Roberto de la Rosa netted to level the game on the night. Missing Sergio Ramos, who picked up a leg injury during the final regular season game, Monterrey fell again despite the man advantage as Paulinho brought them back level on aggregate.
Ending Monterrey's hopes of another league final, the result would be the end for manager Martín Demichelis' reign at the club, who received the sack despite his side's best efforts.
Club América 2 (2) - (0) 0 Pachuca: Alex Zendejas to the rescue for Las Águilas
Club América and Pachuca settled for a goalless draw in Hidalgo in the curtain opener, meaning that the reigning Concacaf Champions Cup winners needed a win in the capital to qualify.
Los Tuzos have avoided defeat in all their last five meetings, but a double from Alex Zendejas in the first half of the second leg was enough to end that run. Any hopes of a comeback for Pachuca were diminished when Oussama Idrissi saw red in the second half, but the damage was done long before as André Jardine's side chase a fourth consecutive league title.
Cruz Azul 2 (5) - (3) 1 León: Wins in both legs send La Máquina to another semi-final
Cruz Azul made it three wins in less than three weeks against León as James Rodríguez and his teammates bow out of Clausura contention.
León missed their Colombian star for the first leg due to suspension, but it was all about the opposition's number 10 when Andrés Montaño netted a first half brace after Ignacio Rivero opened the scoring for the Mexico City side.
Goals from Sebastian Santos and Ivan Moreno gave León a chance in the second leg, but their lower league finish meant that they needed a two-goal win to reach the semi-final.
Rivero hit again in the second leg, scoring the opening goal for the second straight fixture, but León gave themselves a fighting chance when an Alfonso Blanco spray found Jhander Cadiz on the counterattack from a Cruz Azul corner to hit back straight after conceding.
Fighting from behind, all hopes of a comeback were squashed when Rodrigo Echeverría hit into his own net to give Los Azules an even healthier lead going into the final 20 minutes.
Tigres 2 (2) - (2) 2 Necaxa: Last gasped drama changes the fate at the Estadio Universitario
Tigres and Necaxa may have been evenly split based on their performances this season, but Guido Pizarro's side won all the previous six meetings in this fixture, dating back to 2022.
As expected, the sides played out a hard fought draw in the first leg, leaving it all to be decided back in Monterrey.
The deadlock was at last broken six minutes into the second half of the reverse fixture when Juan Brunetta stepped up and smashed Tigres into the lead. A moment that would burst this tie into life as Necaxa got back into the game through Agustin Palavecino, and they even took the lead for the first time in the tie with eight minutes left when Tomas Badaloni gave them the go-ahead goal.
Stunned beyond belief, Tigres were seconds away from crashing out of the league in front of their own fans. That was until absolute mayhem forced a faint Manuel Mayorga touch to go all the way into the back of the net to change the complete course of the tie and once again send Tigres into the semi-final.
Clausura Semi-final Fixtures
All the top four seeded sides from the Clausura all make it to the semi-final. As again, the teams with the higher league rank will go through in the event of a tie, pressure will be on Cruz Azul and Tigres to get a win.
(1) Toluca vs Tigres (4)
(2) Club América vs Cruz Azul (3)
Who do you think will reach the Clausura final? Let us know!
Read More