Wilfred Nancy admits it's 'difficult to accept' disallowed goal against Santos Laguna

CF Montreal lost the first leg of their Concacaf Champions League round of 16 match against Santos Laguna on Monday - a “difficult” defeat to accept according to frustrated head coach Wilfred Nancy. 

The Canadian MLS side endured a disappointing night after kicking off strongly at Estadio Nuevo Corona in Torreon, Mexico. 

Romell Quioto was in full force, scoring a first-half goal that could have earned the lead for Montreal before it was disallowed by VAR. Their celebrations ended in disappointment as it was adjudged that  Lassi Lappalainen committed a foul in the build-up to make the play unruly. 

“Listen, this is difficult, to accept that,” said head coach Nancy. 

“Apparently that was a foul. Difficult to handle it, difficult to accept,” continued Nancy. “I cannot talk too much about the foul, because I did not see, but apparently there was a foul. But for me, this is a soft one.”

Despite the disallowed goal, Nancy exited Estadio Nuevo Corona happy with his side and eager to host Santos Laguna for the second leg at Stade Olympique on February 22. 

“We started well, and after that we didn't control the ball the way we wanted, because we didn't have the emotional control that we should have and it's normal also, because this is new, it was not easy,” the coach continued. 

“At halftime I said to my players to try to be composed, slow down the play; when you see the good moment, speed it up. And so we had a really good moment collectively, and I’m really happy because this is us, this is the way we want to play, at home or away.”

Montreal held the 0-0 as long as possible, struggling in the final third of the match against the Liga MX opponents. Then, in the 88th minute, Alberto Ocejo took advantage of the Canadian side’s poor defending to net the winning goal. Overall, the Mexican team managed 26 shots in 90 minutes of play. 

Nevertheless, Nancy appeared satisfied with the performance. 

“We had good sequences, yes, but we missed the extra pass to give the ball to the right person to be able to finish the action," he said. "But again, the players showed a lot of personality in the second half – and also in the first half, because again, to play here, it’s not easy.”

The teams meet again next week, five days before CF Montreal kick off their 2022 MLS campaign on February 27.