By Edgardo Avelar
Nov 20, 2024, 00:31 AM EST
With a great performance by Raúl Jiménez, the Mexican team fixed the damage caused by the night of a thousand devils in San Pedro Sula, where they fell 2-0, to beat Honduras 4-0 (on aggregate 4-2) and advance to the “Final Four” of the Concacaf Nations League.
A performance that the Aztec team owed for a long time and that arrived just in time to restore the soul to the body of the Tricolor by beating a cautious Honduran team, who, aware of their poor football level, opted to defend their two-goal advantage and in the sin they carried out the penance by falling 4-0 in the Nemesio Diez State of the city of Toluca.
Without a doubt the important factor was the Premier League Fulham striker, Raúl Jiménez, who shouldered the Mexican team to beat the Hondurans from start to finish and achieve victory with goals from Raúl Jiménez himself, two from Henry Martín and one more from Jorge Sánchez.
The reality is that the 4-0 only shows that Mexico did what they had to dowithout exaggeration, knowing that if they did not manage to leave the Central Americans on the road, the crisis of the Aztec team would have worsened and would have forced them to take a longer path to be able to aspire to the 2025 Gold Cup in a very tedious and long playoff with rivals of much lower quality.
But now with more personality than football, The Tricolor was able to correct Friday’s mistakes and was driven by eight changes to its lineupwent in search of Honduras until reaching this victory that places them among the four teams that will play for the Nations League title and that already have in hand the ticket to the most prestigious national team tournament in CONCACAF.
The reasons for victory
Mexico had another face with the changes made by Javier Aguirre in their lineup and they were from the goal with Luis Malagón, then with Rodrigo Huescas, Jesús Gallardo, Jesús Orozco, Alexis Gutiérrez, Luis Romo, Carlos Rodríguez and Alexis Vega, repeating in the starting eleven only César Montes, Edson Álvarez and Raúl Jiménez .
Precisely these movements gave another appearance to the Mexican painting. and with an attack starting with Edson Álvarez and escorted by Luis Romo, Carlos Rodríguez from the center and with Alexis Vega pulling the strings, they were able to attack Honduras on the wings with Rodrigo Huescas, Alexis Gutiérrez and Jesús Gallardo.
This resulted that Raúl Jiménez with his mere presence had a way of generating danger and a lot of fear in the Hondurans who were able to hold out for 42 minutes when Raúl Jiménez was able to finish off a cross shot by Jesús Orozco Chiquete and finally beat the best man in Honduras, their goalkeeper Edrick Menjívar.
If it had not been for the Catrachos goalkeeper, Mexico would have had a more splendid night, but in the end was able to achieve its goal of leveling the score at minute 72 when Henry Martín finished off a long ball by Raúl Jiménez at the second post for the 2-0 score that tied the score overall.
Thus the Aztec team went in search of the third goal that could avoid extra time and he achieved it in the 85th minute when Jorge Sánchez erased his mistake from a minute before when he could not finish a ball from close range, then in the next action he lowered a ball with his chest to shoot and beat the Catracha goal for the long-awaited 3-2 .
Nine minutes later, in stoppage time, Mexico scored 4-0 with a penalty taken by Henry Martín that sealed the Aztec victory and put a happy face on the painful moment that the Tricolor continues to go through immersed in an identity crisis and that Javier Aguirre has the objective of changing its face with a view to a historic World Cup .
Continue reading:
-Reinaldo Rueda analyzed the decisive second leg against Mexico
-Alexis Vega on the key duel against Honduras: “We must come out focused”
-Edson Álvarez sends a warning to Honduras: “See you in Toluca”
-FIFA President reacts to the attack on Javier Aguirre in Honduras