Marathon muscle their way past Diriangen

MIAMI, Florida. – Honduran side Marathon are through to the Round of 16 of the 2021 Scotiabank Concacaf League after posting a 2-1 win over Diriangen of Nicaragua in the second leg of their Preliminary Round series on Wednesday night at the Estadio Olimpico Metropolitano in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.

By virtue of Wednesday’s victory and the 1-0 first leg win in Nicaragua, Marathon have advanced 3-1 on aggregate and will now face another Nicaraguan side, Real Esteli, in the next round.

After a tight opening half-hour between the two sides, Marathon would grab a 1-0 lead in the 31’ through Frelys Lopez, who received a surgical pass from Mario Martinez and fired in for the score.

Diriangen looked set to draw level shortly before the halftime break when Robinson Da Silva was played in and had just Marathon GK Denovan Torres to beat, but the Brazilian forward’s effort was blocked by Torres.

The visiting Nicaraguans continued to commit numbers forward in hopes of pulling a goal back on aggregate and Jose Laureiro came within a whisker of doing so in the 60’, but was unable to finish past Torres.

Marathon managed to absorb Diriangen’s best shots and then proceeded to land the decisive blow in the 77’ with Kervin Arriaga taking a back-heel from Lopez and finishing for a 2-0 lead.

Diriangen continued to battle though and pulled a goal back late, 2-1, in the 88’ with Yohn Mosquera cleaning up a corner kick, but in the end, Marathon would nail down the win to secure their passage to the next phase.