Santiago Sandoval scored again for c.d. guadalajara, and this one came at the right time. He finished off a counterattack against Cruz Azul in the semifinal after Kevin Mier spilled a weak shot and left the ball in front of goal for the young forward to bury.
The move began with Ricardo Marín, who linked up with Sandoval on the break and then found space for a right-footed effort that Mier kept out only half-way. Sandoval arrived by surprise and sent the rebound into the net, giving Guadalajara a goal that could shape the tie.
It was Sandoval’s third goal of the Liguilla, and it came only days after he scored twice against Tigres to help Chivas complete a comeback the previous weekend. He has become the club’s most reliable scorer in the Fase Final, a striking rise for a player the source describes as one of Guadalajara’s top youth prospects for the immediate future.
That makes the timing matter. The semifinal is now headed to a second leg on Saturday, May 16, at Estadio Jalisco, with kickoff set for 19:07 hours Mexico City time. The winner will become the first finalist of Clausura 2026, which gives every mistake, save and rebound in the return match extra weight.
There was still a note of uncertainty in the way the goal arrived. Marín’s shot was not clean, Mier should have handled it better, and Sandoval did the rest. Guadalajara will take the lead, but the sequence also showed how thin the margin remains against a Cruz Azul side that can turn one loose touch into a problem in an instant.
For Sandoval, the pattern is becoming impossible to ignore. He delivered a brace against Tigres, then followed it with another decisive finish in the semifinal, and Guadalajara now heads home with a player who keeps finding the moment when the club needs one. The return leg at Estadio Jalisco will decide whether that run carries Chivas into the first final of Clausura 2026.
