Montreal Impact advance to CONCACAF Champions League final

Updated: May 17, 2023, 06:18 am
The Montreal Impact celebrate their first goal in their CCL second-leg match vs. Alajuelense.
Ezequiel Becerra/AFP/Getty Images

The Montreal Impact beat Costa Rican club Alajuelense on away goals after a 4-4 aggregate final to become the first-ever Canadian club to reach the CONCACAF Champions League finals. 

The Impact went into the match with a 2-0 aggregate advantage in hand after beating Alajuelense at home on March 18. 

Montreal grabbed the lead first off a Jack McInerney strike and went into the locker room leading the match 1-0. 

However, the hosts came out in the second half and pulled back two goals both through Pablo Gablas to make the score 2-1, meaning they still needed two more goals at home to overcome an away-goals deficit.

With the Impact looking like they were just trying to hold on, Andres Romero added another goal for his visiting side, only to be answered seven minutes later by Alajuelense's Alan Guevara to put the match score at 3-2 in favor of the home side.

Alajuelense's Jonathan McDonald added one more in the 90th minute to bring the aggregate score to 4-4, but the home team came up one goal short.

The Impact will move on to face the winner of Club America and Herediano in the other second-leg semifinal on Wednesday night. Montreal are only the second MLS club to make the CCF finals since they changed to the new format in 2008-09. Real Salt Lake made the finals and lost to Monterrey in the 2010-11 season.