Pachuca and Santos Laguna met at 19:00 hours at the Estadio Hidalgo on jornada 14 of the Clausura 2026, with the hosts trying to keep pace near the top and the visitors trying to climb out of last place. Martin Molina worked the game as center referee, with Alberto Morín and Daniel Martínez on the lines.
The matchup came with Pachuca in fourth place on 25 points, built from seven wins, four draws and two losses, and riding a five-match unbeaten run after a 2-1 victory over Cruz Azul. Santos Laguna arrived bottom of the table with nine points from two wins, three draws and eight losses, after a 1-1 draw with América at Estadio Corona. Bruno Amione was available again for Santos after serving a suspension for accumulated yellow cards, giving the club one more option in a season that had left it with only 39 possible points to fight for.
The numbers pointed strongly toward Pachuca. The team had not lost at home in the tournament, going through its first seven home matches with five wins and two draws while scoring 12 goals and conceding five. Its last home defeat came on Nov. 2 of the previous year against Chivas, a result that has stood as the exception in an otherwise stubborn run at the Estadio Hidalgo.
Santos, meanwhile, has rarely found comfort in La Bella Airosa. The club had visited Pachuca 34 times before this match, with six wins, 18 losses and 10 draws, and its last victory there came in the Clausura 2015, a 3-2 result that now feels distant. Since then, Santos had taken only four draws and suffered eight losses in Pachuca, a stretch that underscored how hard the venue has been for the Laguneros.
The broader history between the clubs was tighter than the recent form suggested. Pachuca and Santos had met 69 times overall, with Pachuca winning 25, Santos 22 and 22 ending level. In the most recent 10 meetings, Pachuca had five wins, Santos two and there were three draws. That balance makes the current gap in the table harder to ignore: Pachuca was pressing for a strong finish, while Santos needed points simply to stop the slide at the bottom.
For Santos, the task was as practical as it was urgent. For Pachuca, the opportunity was to protect one of the tournament’s steadiest home records and keep the momentum from the Cruz Azul win. On a night that matched one of the league’s form sides against its last-place club, the result carried as much about the standings as it did about the history between them.
