Montreal eager to overcome 1-0 deficit to Santos Laguna
CF Montreal welcomes Santos Laguna to the Olympic Stadium in Montreal on Tuesday for the second leg of their Concacaf Champions League Round of 16 match-up.
Santos Laguna comes into the game with a 1-0 advantage thanks to a late winner scored by Jesus Ocejo in the 88th minute of the first leg in Mexico.
Santos Laguna have been in poor form this year and are the only winless Liga MX team this season. This past weekend, the Guerreros battled mid-table club FC Juarez to a scoreless draw.
CF Montreal still awaits to play their first domestic league action but may have shaken off some rust playing their first competitive match of the 2022 season last week in Torreón.
CF Montreal may get a boost to their offence as, over the weekend, they signed veteran free agent Kei Ansu Kamara. In 359 MLS appearances, he has netted 130 career goals. and he made his MLS debut back in 2006 with the Columbus Crew. His most recent stop saw him playing in Finland with Helsinki IFK scoring five times in 14 games.
.@keikamara,
— CF Montréal (@cfmontreal) February 18, 2022
Bienvenue à Montréal 👋#CFMTL pic.twitter.com/IKNDG2KQQa
With the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, Tuesday night won’t be a rocking full house but at 50 percent capacity, CF Montreal could potentially have 31,000 fans in attendance to help give Montreal an edge.
The Olympic stadium is the second home for CF Montreal. Home of the 1976 Summer Games and the defunct Montreal Expos of the MLB, the “Big Owe,” as it’s known in Canada (due to construction cost overruns with the stadium finally being paid off in 2006) has hosted numerous soccer matches over the years.
It’s worth noting in the attendance history of the CONCACAF Champions League, Montreal has been home to two of the top four all-time attended matches.
With Santos Laguna holding a 1-0 advantage, whatever the result is on Tuesday night , the winner of this matchup will either face Cruz Azul of Liga MX or Forge FC of the Canadian Premier League in March.