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Saturday promises one of the most interesting fixtures of matchday 6 of the Clausura 2024 – both in terms of the quality and depth of both squads and the rivalry that has preceded them in recent years. León play host to América and while it’s another year and a brand new tournament, there will be an extra dose of intrigue in seeing Andrés Guardado face the Águilas again… All of that makes it one of the most appealing clashes this weekend.

However, beyond the high expectations that may exist to see El Principito face one of the most organized and solid midfields in the Liga MX, there is another undeniable certitude going into this game – the Azulcremas’ recent dominance in the fixture.

The Panzas Verdes’ last victory against the Coapa side

León’s last win over América was some time ago – on 31 July 2022 in Week 6, when Christian Martínez’s men beat América 3-2 with goals from Víctor Dávila, Osvaldo Rodríguez and Ángel Mena. Henry Martin was on target twice for the Águilas, who played the dying minutes with numerical superiority after José Rodríguez was sent off. Little did the locals know at the time that the next victory would have to wait – the most recent meetings have been less productive.

After that Apertura 2022 win, the two teams met four times in a period of almost a year. América remain unbeaten in that time. The first ended in a 2-2 draw on 1 April 2023; the next game also ended level – 1-1 in August of the same year. Not long after that, and during the same tournament, they faced each other in the quarter finals.

Once in the direct elimination stage, the Santa Úrsula team managed to take a draw from the first leg of the Liguilla tie away from home (29 November 2023), and won the second leg at their stadium 2-0 (December 23, 2023). So León will have a task on their hands when América visit this weekend. As the home team, they are obliged to get a result – preferably one that will allow them to breaking the run of more than 550 days without beating the Águilas, and of course, demonstrate that statistics, as well as trends, are there to be broken.