🏆 Cruz Azul, Tigres, LAFC book Champions Cup quarter-final passage

A handful of Concacaf Champions Cup round-of-16 ties were settled Tuesday evening, and there was plenty of drama on offer.

Here is what went down around the grounds.

Tigres FC 3-1 Cincinnati

Scorers: Herrera 64', Brunetta 69', Ibañez 73' ; Evander 18'

After a winter of major investment in the squad, Cincinnati came into the tie with hopes of making a statement, and they did so in the opening 20 minutes when new-boy Evander finished off a super team move to open the scoring.

But after the break the visitors from Ohio collapsed under the El Volcán pressure, as Tigres blew them away with three goals in nine minutes to move well and truly clear in the tie.

After Ozziel Herrera bagged the leveler, he was followed by goals from Juan Brunetta and Nicolas Ibañez to set the home crowd alight.

Columbus Crew 2-1 LAFC

Scorers: Russell-Rowe 10', Rossi (P) 45' ; Bouanga 90+5'

Despite being behind by three on aggregate, Columbus started the match clearly energized, and they made hay inside 10 minutes when Jacen Russell-Rowe opened the scoring.

It went from good to great in the dying minutes of the half when Diego Rossi cut LAFC's lead to just one from the penalty spot — the comeback was well and truly on.

The Crew looked all but nailed on to pull level in the second-half, and they perhaps should have when Max Arfsten fired home a shot from point-blank range at the back-post, but Hugo Lloris pulled off a superb save to keep his side ahead.

That moment appeared to swing momentum as LAFC raced away on the counter-attack in stoppage-time and bagged their crucial away goal thanks to Denis Bouanga.

LAFC will now turn their attention to a quarter-final showdown with the winner of Inter Miami and Cavalier Thursday evening.

Cruz Azul 4-1 Seattle Sounders

Scorers: Rodríguez 33', Sepúlveda (P) 71', Romero 85', Sánchez 89' ;  Musovski 75'

Cruz Azul cemented their place in the quarter-finals with a solid win over a hot Seattle Sounders side.

It was just about the worst opening interval you could imagine for the visitors from the Pacific Northwest.

After Carlos Rodríguez broke the deadlock in a tightly-contested first-half to give Cruz Azul the lead on aggregate, Seattle star Paul Arriola went off with what appeared to be a serious knee injury.

To make matters worse the Sounders, Jordan Morris limped off with an injury deep into the second half, just minutes before Ángel Sepúlveda put the hosts two ahead from the spot.

It got nervy for the home crowd in the dying minutes however, as Danny Musovski came off the bench to pull one back for the Sounders.

Any hopes of a comeback were dashed in the final few minutes when Cruz Azul bagged to late goals to kill off the tie.

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