Santos Laguna will be looking to get off to a winning start when they host Queretaro in the opening game of the Liga MX Apertura on Sunday night.
Both sides will be glad of the fresh start as the hosts finished 13th in the standings, while the visitors concluded their season a few places higher in 10th.
Match preview
Santos Laguna come into this match on Sunday, hoping to improve upon a disappointing 2022-23 Clausura campaign which saw them finish in 13th place, picking up 19 points from 17 games during that section of the division.
Pablo Repetto will have been scratching his head wondering where it all went wrong for his side, who managed to finish in the top three in the 2022-23 Apertura.
Repetto will be hoping his men can replicate that form, which saw them pick up 33 points from 17 games and have the best home record in the league, winning eight and drawing one of the nine matches played at the Estadio Nuevo Corona.
However, Santos Laguna struggled on the defensive end during the second part of the season, conceding 37 goals during the 2022-23 Clausura campaign – only one team shipped more goals than the Guerreros during that time.
Meanwhile, Queretaro will be hoping to improve on a Liga MX campaign that saw them fail to make the playoffs during the 2022-23 Apertura and 2022-23 Clausura campaigns.
Despite Los Gallos Blancos' top-10 finish in the 2022-23 Clausura season, they finished bottom of the coefficient table, meaning they were ineligible to compete in the playoffs.
However, finishing 10th marked a huge improvement from Queretaro's performance in the 2022-23 Apertura, when Mauro Gerk's side finished rock-bottom of the division.
Gerk's men recorded just one win from 17 matches, possessing both the worst home and away record in the league.
Los Gallos Blancos will be eager for this fresh start and hoping to replicate the form from the second half of the campaign, which saw them pick up 20 points from 17 matches.
Team News
Harold Preciado was the club's top scorer with 15 goals across all competitions last season, so he is expected to lead the line for Repetto's side once again this campaign.
New signing Pedro Aquino could also make his debut in the engine room on Sunday night after his arrival from Club America.
As for the visitors, defensive reinforcements were needed for the new season with defensive duo Oscar Manzanarez and Emanuel Gularte arriving from Santos Laguna and Puebla, respectively.
Goals were in short supply for Queretaro last season, with Angel Sepulveda finishing as the club's top scorer with six goals for the season, so Gerk will be expecting a better return from his strikers such as Jose Zuniga and new arrival Camilo Sanvezzo.
Santos Laguna possible starting lineup:
Acevedo; Lopez, Torres, Doria, Campos; Acquino, Cervantes, Lopez; Medina, Vergara; Preciado
Queretaro possible starting lineup:
Allison; Mendoza, Manzanarez, Gularte, Perlaza; Barrera, Lopez, Escamilla, Sepulveda; Zuniga, Sanvezzo
We say: Santos Laguna 1-1 Queretaro
Two of the last three meetings between these two clubs have resulted in a draw, so we can see the sides sharing the spoils here.
Santos Laguna shipped plenty of goals during the second half of the season, while Queretaro were not the best travellers, so it feels like the two sides will cancel each other out.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
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