CF Montreal began the Leagues Cup on Saturday night at Saputo Stadium in Montreal needing penalties to beat Pumas UNAM 4-2.

In front of a sell-out crowd of 19,619 including a loud contingent of Mexican fans who made the trip north to support their team the home team got off to a better start.

In the 20th minute off a corner, Ariel Lassiter’s cross got headed on target by Mathieu Choiniere but wasn’t able to beat the Mexican keeper Gil Alcala.

Three minutes later Bryce Duke opened the scoring when he found himself with the ball at the top of the goal circle and powered a shot into the back of the net. Choiniere doubled CF Montreal’s lead in the 43rd minute off another set-piece free-kick that curled into the net.

Also, check out all our latest articles on MLS. 

Gabrielle Corbo on the play thought the ball deflected off him but the goal was given to Choiniere. Pumas finally got their first shot on target in the 53rd minute when Cesar Huerta took a shot from distance and Jonathan Sirois made his first save of the night.

10 minutes later with the Mexicans pressing Sirois was sprung into action once again pushing a ball in the air out of danger. In the 88th minute, Pumas scored to get within one when Huerta made a sublime cross to Gabriel Fernandez who managed to pull off a scissor kick and put the ball into the back of the net.

That got woke the visitors up and in the first minute of extra time they tied the game when Fernandez once again found a loose rebound at the side of the net and slid to get the ball into the net after chaos in front and two other players missing the net.

The rule in the Leagues Cup is that a game can’t end in a tie so the game went straight in penalty kicks. Adrian Aldrate took the first shot for the visitors and shot the ball sky-high for the miss.

Both Rudy Camacho and Fernandez scored to make it 1-1 and the next two shooters Choiniere and Huerta also scored before Sirois made a huge save on Jorge Ruvalcaba and Lassi Lappalainen stepped up and scored the game-winner.

CF Montreal will be back in action on Wednesday, July 26th when they will host DC United in the final group stage game. The win gave them two points while Pumas UNAM will leave with one.