The often-fiery manager struck a laid back tone following a 3-1 loss in which Guido Pizarro was sent off
Tigres boss Miguel Herrera walked away from a 3-1 defeat to Toluca on Sunday feeling “calm” given his belief that attacking stars Andre-Pierre Gignac and Florian Thauvin would be available for the next Apertura game.
Herrera had blasted his squad last weekend despite a winning display against Tijuana, but he was not overly annoyed with his side’s effort this time, as he claimed Tigres were the better team until Guido Pizarro was sent off in the 65th minute. From the dismissal, things unraveled, with Alexis Canelo’s decisive strike from outside the box 19 minutes later the result of sustained Toluca pressure.
The defeat was Herrera’s first since taking over for Ricardo ‘Tuca’ Ferretti, whom he has criticized for instilling an overly conservative defensive mindset in his players.
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What has been said?
“It leaves me calm, the team played a great game,” said Herrera via TUDN. “The truth is that when we played better [the referees made things more difficult] – a penalty, two cautions, they took us out very quickly.
“I think the team handled the ball well … while we were eleven against eleven. We had better possession, better attacks, unfortunately all that mess came, moments later they scored the second goal.”
On Gignac and Thauvin, Herrera added: “The two will be ready for the next game.”
Guzman’s penalty block
Tigres goalkeeper Nahuel Guzman, who recently surpassed Juninho to set the Liga MX club appearance record for foreign players, stopped a second-half penalty that had been controversially awarded to Toluca.
Pizarro was shown a second yellow for a clumsy midfield challenge just two minutes later, though, and Toluca took control from there.
Up next
Tigres will meet Clausura runners-up Santos Laguna on Saturday in their third Apertura match, and Gignac and Thauvin will be expected to make their season debuts after their returns from Olympic duty with France.