MIAMI, Florida – Tomas Chancalay bagged a brace and Nick Lima had a goal and an assist to pace the New England Revolution of Major League Soccer (MLS) to a 4-0 victory over Alajuelense of Costa Rica in the first leg of the 2024 Concacaf Champions Cup Round of 16 on Wednesday night at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
The victory gives the Revolution a commanding lead going into next week’s return leg in Costa Rica, with New England on the verge of their first Champions Cup quarterfinal since 2022.
It was a fairly even start between the two sides, but it was New England who took the lead on a fullback-to-fullback connection between DeJuan Jones and Lima, with Jones serving up a cross from the left wing and Lima hammering it into net for a 1-0 lead in the 28’.
The Revolution stayed on the front foot and doubled the margin to 2-0 in the 41’ with some slick passing, ending with Nacho Gil sliding a pass into Chancalay, who finished inside the near post for the goal.
New England did not want to allow Alajuelense back into the match and a handball early after the re-start resulted in a penalty kick in the home side’s favor, which Chancalay converted in the 50’ for his second goal of the night and a 3-0 New England lead.
The hosts continued to make the most of the space left in the Alajuelense half and it became 4-0 in the 55’ when Lima picked out Esmir Bajraktarevic at the far post for an easy finish into net.
From there, the Revolution defense took over to nail down the clean sheet victory for the home side.
