Tigres created history by becoming the first Concacaf team to reach the final of the FIFA Club World Cup after Andre-Pierre Gignac’s second-half penalty secured the Mexican side a 1-0 win over Palmeiras Sunday.
Palmeiras went into the contest at the Education City Stadium as favourites, but the South American champions were clearly outsmarted by Tigres in an entertaining match. In the final to be played on Thursday, Ricardo Ferretti’s side will take on the winner of Monday’s second semi-final between Bayern Munich and Al Ahly.
Tigres' players celebrate their win
Palmeiras, who had won the Copa Libertadores title just a week ago, were on the backfoot right from the start as Tigres went close in the third minute. Luis Rodriguez whipped in a cross from the right and Carlos Gonzalez struck a point-blank header but Palmeiras’ goalkeeper Weverton dived to his right to make a spectacular save.
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On the eve of the match, the South Americans had spoken about the threat of Tigres’ striker Gignac and the Frenchman justified the hype around him. Gignac had scored two goals on Thursday in Tigres’ 2-1 win over Asian champions Ulsan Hyundai in their tournament opener.
The 35-year-old has been a huge success at the Liga-MX outfit, scoring 144 goals in 244 games since joining on a free transfer in 2015. On Sunday, the former Marseille and French forward was once again a livewire and looked dangerous every time Tigres went on attack.
In the space of four minutes, Gignac drew two terrific saves from Weverton. In the 32nd minute, Palmeiras goalkeeper tipped Gignac’s curling, goal-bound right-foot shot. Weverton once again kept his team in the game after saving a Gignac header.
Palmeiras lost control of the midfield in the last five minutes of first half with Ze Rafael in particular having a poor match, but the Brazilians managed to go into the break without conceding.
Tigres continued to press Palmeiras in the second half and were awarded a penalty eight minutes after the restart. Luan Garcia brought down a charging Gonzalez in the box with the Paraguayan striker goal-bound. Gignac stepped in to take a penalty and hit a powerful shot into the bottom-left corner even though it brushed Weverton’s gloves.
Palmeiras made a double substitution in the second half bringing in Felipe Melo and Patrick de Paula in the 56th minute. A few seconds later the South Americans thought they had equalized when Rony had the ball in the net but the goal was ruled off-side.
Palmeiras had struck extremely late in the Copa Libertadores final against Santos to earn their place at the global showpiece, and pressed for an equaliser as the clock ticked down. And they nearly had one in the 76th minute. After a cross from Willian from the right was flicked by Luiz Adriano, the ball deflected off a Tigres defender which missed the target by less than a meter.
Palmeiras had one final chance in the last minute of stoppage time. Matias Vina tried a low shot but the deflected ball went past the post resulting in a corner as the Tigres held on to celebrate a famous victory.
