With the nervous opening game out of the way it’s time for the second Liga MX game of the season. Santos Laguna look forward to welcoming Cruz Azul in front of their home support.
Santos Laguna and Cruz Azul should both be in good shape for this meeting, as there's been enough days for both of them to train and rest since their last matches.
These teams have little in common geographically as Cruz Azul have to travel 900 kilometers to reach their opponents. The trip home will be especially long if the match ends in defeat.
Santos Laguna form and stats
Last season, Santos Laguna's league statistics were 7 wins, 4 draws and 6 losses, resulting in a 8th position in the Liga MX. Over these 17 matches they scored 24 goals and conceded 20. Playing at home last season Santos Laguna managed 5-2-1 (win-draw-lost) with 14 goals and 5 conceded.
Santos are returning here after visiting Necaxa in a Liga MX game and winning with a 3-0 scoreline. Diego Valdés, Juan Otero and Jesús Ocejo scored the goal(s). Midfielder Juan Otero was the best player on the team with a rating of 7.75 (out of ten) in that game. Otero scored one goal and dribled passed the opponent 2 of 4 times.
Before that, Santos Laguna played out a draw 1-1 when visiting Cruz Azul.This is expected to be a close game, with Santos Laguna perhaps considered small favourites due to their home advantage. Looking back at earlier matches similar to this one (expected to be close with Santos Laguna as a small favourite), we find ten games. Santos Laguna has won five of these, drawn three and lost two.
Cruz Azul form and stats
Let's have a look at how Cruz Azul performed last season in the Liga MX: They landed a 4th position in the league table after playing out 9 victories, 2 draws and 6 defeats. In total they scored 23 and conceded 16 goals in these matches. The numbers for away games only are: Won 4 - drew 1 and lost 4 with 11/10 goals scored/conceded.
Home advantage was not enough for Cruz in their previous game, as they lost their Liga MX-match, hosting Mazatlán, 0-2. Midfield player Rafael Baca was the top player of the team with a match rating of 7.6/10. Baca hit one key pass and had 51 successful passes (of 58 total).
Ahead of that game was the 1-1 draw at home against Santos Laguna.As mentioned above, this is an open game with no clear favourite. We have found 13 similar matches played by Cruz Azul in our archives, and the results are: five wins for Cruz Azul, four draws and four defeats.
Head 2 Head
Head-to-head totals (for the last ten meetings): Santos won four games, two matches ended with a draw and Cruz Azul has four wins. Over 2,5 goals / under 2,5 goals: four / sixTop Goalscorers
  D. Valdés Contreras 1 goals | J. Ocejo Zazueta 1 goals |  J. Otero Tovar 1 goals |
Santos Laguna missing players
Cruz Azul missing players
| Santos Laguna | Cruz Azul | ||||||
| Total | Home | vs | Statistics | Stat | vs | Away | Total |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | Played | P | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | Won | W | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | Drew | D | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | Lost | L | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 3 | 0 | 0 | Scored | S | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | Conceded | C | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 100% | 0% | 0% | Over 0.5 | O 0.5 | 0% | 0% | 100% |
| 100% | 0% | 0% | Over 1.5 | O 1.5 | 0% | 0% | 100% |
| 100% | 0% | 0% | Over 2.5 | O 2.5 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| 0% | 0% | 0% | Over 3.5 | O 3.5 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| 0% | 0% | 0% | Over 4.5 | O 4.5 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| 0% | 0% | 0% | BTTS | BTTS | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| 100% | 0% | 0% | Clean Sheets | C S | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| 0% | 0% | 0% | Failed to Score | F T | 0% | 0% | 100% |
| 7 | 0 | 0 | Corners for (avg) | C F | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| 6 | 0 | 0 | Corners against (avg) | C A | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 2 | 0 | 0 | Yellow cards (avg) | Y C | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | Red cards | R C | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 14 | 0 | 0 | Shots (avg) | S ( | 0 | 0 | 13 |
| 5 | 0 | 0 | Shots on Target (avg) | S O | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| 60% | 0% | 0% | Goal Efficiency | G E | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Santos Laguna | Last season | Cruz Azul | |||||
| Total | Home | Statistics | Stat | Away | Total | ||
| 42 | 22 | Played | P | 22 | 44 | ||
| 17 | 14 | Won | W | 12 | 27 | ||
| 11 | 4 | Drew | D | 3 | 6 | ||
| 14 | 4 | Lost | L | 7 | 11 | ||
| 54 | 39 | Scored | S | 25 | 63 | ||
| 41 | 17 | Conceded | C | 19 | 37 | ||
| 93% | 91% | Over 0.5 | O 0.5 | 95% | 95% | ||
| 71% | 77% | Over 1.5 | O 1.5 | 55% | 59% | ||
| 40% | 55% | Over 2.5 | O 2.5 | 27% | 34% | ||
| 17% | 23% | Over 3.5 | O 3.5 | 18% | 25% | ||
| 5% | 9% | Over 4.5 | O 4.5 | 5% | 14% | ||
| 48% | 45% | BTTS | BTTS | 32% | 36% | ||
| 31% | 45% | Clean Sheets | C S | 41% | 43% | ||
| 29% | 18% | Failed to Score | F T | 32% | 25% | ||
| 6 | 7 | Corners for (avg) | C F | 5.8 | 5.8 | ||
| 5.1 | 4 | Corners against (avg) | C A | 4.6 | 5 | ||
| 1.5 | 1.2 | Yellow cards (avg) | Y C | 1.5 | 1.6 | ||
| 3 | 1 | Red cards | R C | 0 | 1 | ||
| 14.2 | 15.4 | Shots (avg) | S ( | 11.2 | 12.6 | ||
| 3.9 | 4.7 | Shots on Target (avg) | S O | 3 | 3.6 | ||
| 33% | 38% | Goal Efficiency | G E | 37% | 40% | ||
| Total | Home | Away | |||||||||||||||||||
| # | Team | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | +/- | P |
| 1 | Pachuca | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 3 |
| 2 | Santos Laguna | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| 3 | Toluca | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 4 | Mazatlán | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| 5 | Atletico San Luis | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 6 | Tigres UANL | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 7 | Monterrey | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 8 | Puebla | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 9 | America | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 10 | Atlas | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 11 | Pumas UNAM | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 12 | Queretaro | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 13 | Guadalajara | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 |
| 14 | Tijuana | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 |
| 15 | Juarez | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 0 |
| 16 | Cruz Azul | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 0 |
| 17 | Necaxa | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -3 | 0 |
| 18 | Leon | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | -4 | 0 |