Two teams fresh off Week 4 victories face off Saturday as Tigres UANL plays host to rivals Santos Laguna at the Estadio Universitario.
Tigres UANL arrives to this game coming off a nice bounce-back victory over Toluca and will look to earn its first home win of the campaign after losing to Cruz Azul in Week 3. Santos Laguna, on the other hand, clinched an impressive 1-0 victory over Chivas and hopes to earn consecutive victories for the first time this season.
Currently, both Tigres and Santos are tied in the standings with seven points, although the Felinos hold the advantage because of a better goal differential.
- Five of the last seven head-to-head meetings between these two teams have finished in the UNDER.
- Each of Santos Laguna’s last eight Liga MX matches away from home has finished in the UNDER.
- Santos Laguna is winless in its last six Liga MX matches away from home.
Tigres UANL vs Santos Laguna Game Center
Tigres will want to give their fans the win
In addition to it being a regional rivalry match with Santos Laguna, there is more than one incentive for Tigres to win this match. In their homecoming game against Cruz Azul two weeks ago, there was so much emphasis on making the game feel like a true homecoming that ultimately the final 1-0 defeat to Cruz Azul was seen as a massive letdown.
There is also the fact that Tigres haven’t been doing too well at the Estadio Universitario, where they have suffered three defeats in their last nine Liga MX matches. While that may not seem like a lot, that is an unusually high number of defeats for a team like Tigres, who just a few months ago went nearly a whole year without losing at the Estadio Universitario.
Santos has been awful away from home
However, Tigres might not have a lot to worry about here. If Tigres have been bad playing at home, then Santos Laguna has been an awful visiting team. The Guerreros come into this match winless in their last six Liga MX away games, and spanning through the course of the last two seasons, they have managed to earn just two wins in their last 17 away from home.
Perhaps most worrying about Santos through this stretch has been its inability to get it going offensively. They’ve actually failed to score more than a goal in each of their last eight away league matches.
That said, they have managed to score in each of their last three away from home, and apart from their match against Lobos BUAP in Week 1, they have scored a goal in every match this season.
But the Guerreros haven’t fared too badly against Tigres
The other thing that Santos Laguna has going its way is that recent history suggests that this rivalry tends to favor the Guerreros. In fact, Santos has won its last two meetings vs Tigres, including a 2-0 win in the 2018 Clausura semifinals that eliminated the Felinos from the Liguilla. In total, Santos has lost just twice in its last 16 head-to-head meetings vs Tigres across all competitions.
It’s worth mentioning, however, that across this aforementioned span of 16 games, Santos Laguna has only been able to win twice away from home. Moreover, Tigres’ only two wins over Santos in this period have been in the Estadio Universitario. All in all, Santos hasn’t won a game in its last four visits to Tigres’ home ground.
My take on the game...
I’d like to give Santos Laguna the benefit of the doubt, but I am inclined to believe that Tigres will take this match very seriously following their defeat to Cruz Azul. They really can’t afford to lose two consecutive matches in front of their own home fans, and thus I think it will be the Felinos who leave the stadium with all three points.
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