Denis Bouanga scored in the second the half, but LAFC fell 2-1 to León in the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions League final on Wednesday.
The team has a lot of work to do if it wants to add that prize this season after giving up a pair of first-half goals in a 2-1 loss toin the first game of the two-leg CCL final Wednesday in Guanajuato, Mexico. But it could have been worse: a third León goal was erased when Osvaldo Rodríguez was called for a foul just before scoring in stoppage time.
With the CCL determined by aggregate goals over the two games, LAFC needs to win the rematch by a goal to force extra time and by two goals to win the title outright. Anything short of that and León will become the 17th Mexican club in 18 years to win the region’s most prestigious club competition. That marked just the second time in seven CCL matches that LAFC gave up multiple goals. And it wasn’t even halftime yet.
But Guatemalan referee Walter López ruled that Rodríguez had gone over the back of Palencia and quickly disallowed the goal. Four minutes later, Mateusz Bogusz curled a long cross from the right wing into the center of the box for Bouanga, who redirected it into the lower left corner for his seventh goal in as many CCL games, making LAFC’s task Sunday far less challenging.
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