April 25 – The semi-finals of the 2023 Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League kick soff tonight with an all-Mexican clash between Tigres and Club Leon to the Estadio Universitario in San Nicolas de los Garza, Mexico.
On Wednesday Philadelphia Union meet LAFC in an all-MLS clash.
While Liga MX sides Tigres and Club Leon are meeting for the first time in the Concacaf Champions League, they have met 39 times in the Mexican league with Tigres leading the series with a 16W-12D-10L record.
They last met in September 2022 when Club Leon came away with a 1-0 win at Tigres. Four of their last nine meetings have resulted in draws.
Tigres won the CCL in 2020 and will again rely heavily on their strike force including winger Luis Quinones and veteran forward Andre-Pierre Gignac. Both players scored twice in the previous round against Motagua from Honduras. With 16 career CCL goals, Gignac moved into the top five on all-time top scorers.
This is Club Leon’s first CCL semi-final and they will rely on the goals of Elias Hernandez (two goals and two assists so far in the tournament) to lead their attack.
CCL format change
This is the last season the CCL will be played in its current format. From 2024 it will be replaced by an expanded 27-club competition and will include five rounds (Round One, Round of 16, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and Final) wiuth all ties played in a direct elimination format.
Qualification for the new Champions League will also change with the main route being through the three new regional cup competitions – Leagues Cup, Central American Cup, and Caribbean Cup – that will be played in the Autumn of each year. These three new cups will qualify clubs for the expanded Champions League.
For 2024 four teams from Liga MX – Pachuca, Toluca, Club America and Monterrey – all of whom are previous champions, have already qualified.
Pachuca are five-time Concacaf champions and two-time SCCL winners and qualified as 2022 Liga MX Apertura champions.
Toluca won the Concacaf Champions Cup in 1968 and 2003 and were runners-up in the 2013-14 SCCL. They have qualified for 2024 AS 2022 Liga MX Apertura runners up.
Club America are seven-time champions and qualified as one of the top two Liga MX teams in aggregate points over the 2022 Apertura and 2023 Clausura.
Monterrey also qualified as one of the top two Liga MX teams in aggregate points over the 2022 Apertura and 2023 Clausura. In the SCCL era, no club won more titles than Monterrey, who lifted the trophy five times, the latest being in 2021.
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