Puebla will host Chivas de Guadalajara on Friday, July 31, in matchday 3 of the Liga MX Apertura 2026, with kickoff set for 19:00 hours in Mexico and 21:00 hours in the United States, East. The game will be played at Estadio Cuauhtémoc and will be available for fans in the United States on TUDN and Vix Premium.
That is why Chivas Vs Puebla is drawing attention now: it is a live fixture with clear viewing options, and it arrives with Chivas carrying both expectation and pressure. Gabriel Milito’s team is listed as the most valuable squad in the league according to Transfermarkt, yet it has not had the start it expected in the tournament, which keeps this trip to Puebla from looking like a routine visit.
The recent record still favors Chivas. In its 10 most recent meetings with Puebla, it has six wins, three losses and one draw, a run that shows how often it has managed to leave with the upper hand. But Puebla already proved it can disrupt that script in Apertura 2024, when Emiliano Gómez scored the only goal in a 1-0 win over Guadalajara.
Both clubs also arrive with results that make this matchup harder to call than the standings might suggest. Chivas is coming off a win over FC Juárez and a loss to Toluca in the Apertura 2026, while Puebla beat FC Juárez in its first match before losing to Cruz Azul in its second. That leaves the home side with some momentum of its own and enough recent work to believe it can make Chivas uncomfortable again.
The friction is simple. Chivas travels as the favorite, with the league’s biggest valuation and the stronger recent history in the series, but Puebla has already shown it can win this matchup and does not need to control the ball for long to change the result. Friday night at Estadio Cuauhtémoc will tell whether Milito’s side turns its status into points or whether Puebla makes another case for being the one team Chivas would rather not face when the margins are tight.
