Pachuca will be without Sergio Barreto when it faces Cruz Azul on Wednesday, October 21, after the defender picked up a one-match suspension for reaching five yellow cards. The absence comes with jornada 13 already carrying weight for both sides, and it trims Pachuca’s options before the game at Estadio Hidalgo.
The match is why the search term Pachuca vs Cruz Azul is moving now: it is not just another date on the calendar, but a meeting with selection problems on both benches. Cruz Azul arrives with four confirmed absences and three more players in doubt, a list that includes Mateo Levy, Amaury Morales, Cristian Jiménez and Ralph Orquín, while Carlos Rotondi, Willer Ditta and José Paradela are still not certain to make it. Rotondi could return against Pachuca, but that remains unresolved, and Ditta and Paradela are dealing with physical discomfort.
That leaves Joel Huiqui trying to manage a squad that is already under strain. Mateo Levy, Amaury Morales and Cristian Jiménez are all ruled out for the rest of the season because of severe injuries, and Orquín is in recovery. On the other side, Benjamín Mora cannot count on Robert Kenedy, Andrés Arroyo and Alexei Domínguez, and Barreto’s suspension removes one more defender from a matchup that was already tight on personnel.
The friction is not just in the injury report. In the last five meetings between Pachuca and Cruz Azul, the Máquina Celeste has won three times and Pachuca twice, which is enough to show how narrow the margin has been between them. Cruz Azul is also trying to stay near the top places, while Pachuca is aiming to move closer to the liguilla spots, so the missing names matter as much as the fixture itself.
What comes next is simple: the only confirmed certainty is the match at Estadio Hidalgo on Wednesday, with several lineup calls still open on the Cruz Azul side. Barreto is out, Pachuca must adjust, and Cruz Azul will be waiting to see whether Rotondi, Ditta and Paradela can recover in time to change the balance before kickoff.
