Tigres held off a fiery Pumas to win the 2015 Liga MX Apertura championship in grand fashion winning 4-2 in PKs.
The events that unfolded in the two-legged series are things that Hollywood movies are made of as no one thought that Pumas were going to be able to comeback after what happened in the first leg.
With the first leg taking place in San Nicolás de los Garza where Pumas visited Tigres hoping to get an advantage to take home to Mexico City. However, Tigres made their time at home count as they scored three unanswered goals against Pumas to take a 3-0 lead into the second leg.
Los Universitarios got scoring started with their French talisman André-Pierre Gignac scoring from a penalty, then it was their youngster Javier Aquino who scored a beauty inside the box for the 2-0, and Rafael Sobis ended the night with a rebound goal for the three goal lead. Pumas had no answer for the powerful Tigres offense and had to regroup quickly if they wanted to make a contest out of the second game.
VIDEO #UDLiguilla: ¡Gooooool! Al 28, @JavierAquino7 pone a @TigresOficial 2-0 @PumasMX. https://t.co/484LiNuiH2 https://t.co/HVfpOxuBFy
— Univision Deportes (@UnivisionSports) 11 dezembro 2015
Much like Tigres took full advantage of their time at home, Pumas did so as well as a barrage of three goals forced the game into added extra time. Pumas started their rally in the 45th minute with a broken play goal from Eduardo Herrera to give Pumas a slim ray of hope before the end of the half. Then Matías Britos, scored a fantastic header to reduce Pumas’ deficit with 35 minutes left to play. Tigres had no answer for Pumas’ sublime passing and attack and it eventually led to Pumas’ equalizer in the 88th minute. From a fantastically taken corner kick, Silvio Torales managed to get his head to the ball to knock it past goalkeeper Nahuel Guzmán for the 3-3 equalizer.
Silvio Torales entró a los 83′ y a los 87′ anotó un gol para #Pumas que superó 4-1 a #Tigres. #México @Radio970AM pic.twitter.com/3QdUQYNxFC
— Futgol 970 (@Futgol970) 14 dezembro 2015
As the final whistle blew, the crowd at the Olímpico Universitario were going bonkers at the fact that their team came back from three goals down to tie it up at three-all. However, their joy was short lived as in the 104th minute André-Pierre Gignac buried a shot past Pikolin Palacios to give Tigres a one goal lead once more.
But Pumas wasn’t a team to go down easily, and much like they did in regular time, they found an equalizer in the dying moments of the game. Gerardo Alcoba managed to receive a pass thrown from the touchline and slip past a Tigres defender to give Pumas their much needed goal to send the game to penalty kicks.
Pumas was the team to take the first shot and Fidel Martínez missed the first shot for Pumas that sucked the life out of the Olímpico Universitario. After Martínez’s unfortunate miss, Pumas and Tigres went shot for shot as Tigres made three consecutive and Pumas made two after three attempts each.
Needing a goal from Javier Cortés, one of their leading scorers, he chose the low left side and Tigres keeper Guzmán guessed correctly as he parried away Cortés’ shot. After Pumas’ miss it was all up to Israel Jiménez to score the title deciding goal and he buried it into the right side as Palacios dove left to give Tigres their fourth title in team history.
It was then that Nahuel Guzmán planted a kiss right on Jiménez, which spawned memes of the kiss, echoing the sentiments of all Tigres fans in Monterrey and all over the world.
