2012 Liga MX Apertura Liguilla

Main article: 2012–13 Liga MX season § Torneo Clausura

2012 Liga MX

Tournament details
Country	Mexico
Teams	8
Final positions
Champions	Tijuana
Runner-up	Toluca
Tournament statistics
Matches played	14
Goals scored	36 (2.57 per match)
Top goal scorer(s)	Édgar Benítez (3 goals)

The Liguilla (English: Little League) of the 2012 Liga MX Apertura was the final knockout tournament involving eight teams of the Liga MX. The tournament began on November 14, 2012 and ended on December 12, 2012. The winners and runners-up of the competition qualified for the 2013–14 CONCACAF Champions League.

Teams

The eight best teams in the general table qualified for the competition.

S	Team	Manager	Captain	Performance at the 2011 Apertura
				Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Toluca	Enrique Meza	Sinha	17	10	4	3	28	17	+11	34
2	Tijuana	Antonio Mohamed	Javier Gandolfi	17	9	7	1	23	15	+8	34
3	León	Gustavo Matosas	TBD	17	10	3	4	34	17	+17	33
4	América	Miguel Herrera	Aquivaldo Mosquera	17	8	7	2	28	15	+13	31
5	Morelia	Rubén Omar Romano	Federico Vilar	17	6	9	2	25	16	+9	27
6	Cruz Azul	Guillermo Vázquez	Gerardo Torrado	17	6	8	3	22	15	+7	26
7	Monterrey	Víctor Manuel Vucetich	José María Basanta	17	5	8	4	23	23	0	23
8	Guadalajara	John van 't Schip	Héctor Reynoso	17	6	5	6	17	17	0	23

Bracket

The eight qualified teams play two games against each other on a home-and-away basis. The winner of each match up is determined by aggregate score.

The teams were seeded one to eight in quarterfinals, and will be re-seeded one to four in semifinals, depending on their position in the general table. The higher seeded teams play on their home field during the second leg.

	Quarterfinals							Semifinals							Finals
	1	Toluca	2	3	5
	8	Guadalajara	1	1	2
								1	Toluca	2	1	3
								4	América	0	2	2
	4	América	2	1	3
	5	Morelia	0	2	2
															1	Toluca	1	0	1
															2	Tijuana	2	2	4
	2	Tijuana	1	1	2
	7	Monterrey	0	1	1
								2	Tijuana	0	3	3
								3	León	2	0	2
	3	León	1	3	4
	6	Cruz Azul	2	0	2

• If the two teams are tied after both legs, the higher seeded team advances.
• Both finalist qualify to the 2013–14 CONCACAF Champions League Group Stage.

Quarter-finals

The first legs of the quarterfinals were played on November 14 and 15. The second legs were played on November 17 and 18.

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Guadalajara (8)	2–5	(1) Toluca	1–2	1–3
Monterrey (7)	1–2	(2) Tijuana	0–1	1–1
Cruz Azul (6)	2–4	(3) León	2–1	0–3
Morelia (5)	2–3	(4) América	0–2	2–1

Kickoffs are given in local time (UTC-6 unless stated otherwise).

First leg

Cruz Azul v León

November 14, 2012	Cruz Azul	2–1	León	Estadio Azul, Mexico City
19:00	G. Flores 17' M. Pavone 59'	Report	56' N. Maz	Referee: Ricardo Arellano

Morelia v América

November 14, 2012	Morelia	0–2	América	Estadio Morelos, Morelia
21:00	M. Romero  82'	Report	58'. 76' C. Benítez	Referee: Jorge Pérez

Monterrey v Tijuana

November 15, 2012	Monterrey	0–1	Tijuana	Estadio Tecnológico, Monterrey
19:00		Report	86' G. Garza	Referee: Erim Ramírez

Guadalajara v Toluca

November 15, 2012	Guadalajara	1–2	Toluca	Estadio Omnilife, Zapopan
21:00	R. Márquez Lugo 75' (pen)	Report	26' A. Ríos 30' Sinha	Referee: Fernando Guerrero

Second leg

América v Morelia

November 17, 2012	América	1–2	Morelia	Estadio Azteca, Mexico City
17:00	R. Jiménez 39'	Report	2' J. Rojas 42' M. Sabah	Referee: Francisco Chacón

León v Cruz Azul

November 17, 2012	León	3–0	Cruz Azul	Estadio León, León
19:00	M. Britos 10', 33' L. Delgado 87'	Report		Referee: Marco Rodriquez

Toluca v Guadalajara

November 18, 2012	Toluca	3–1	Guadalajara	Estadio Nemesio Díez, Toluca
12:00	Wilson Mathías 56' Lucas Silva 58' J. Cacho 72'	Report	82' E. Torres	Referee: Jesús Morales

Tijuana v Monterrey

November 18, 2012	Tijuana	1–1	Monterrey	Estadio Caliente, Tijuana
16:30 PST	A. de Nigris 51'	Report	90+3' P. Aguilar	Referee: Roberto Garcia

Semi-finals

The first legs of the semifinals were played on November 22 and November 25. The second legs were played on December 3 and 4.

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
América (4)	2–3	(1) Toluca	0–2	2–1
León (3)	2–3	(2) Tijuana	2–0	0 –3

Kickoffs are given in local time (UTC-6 unless stated otherwise).

First leg

América v Toluca

November 22, 2012	América	0–2	Toluca	Estadio Azteca, Mexico City
19:00		Report	54' Lucas Silva 90' É. Benítez	Referee: Jorge Pérez

León v Tijuana

November 22, 2012	León	2–0	Tijuana	Estadio León, León
21:00	O. Arce 56' C. Peña 57'	Report		Referee: Francisco Chacón

Second leg

Toluca v América

November 25, 2012	Toluca	1–2	América	Estadio Nemesio Díez, Toluca
12:00	É. Benítez 59'	Report	16' M. Layún 37' D. Montenegro  90+5' J. Medina	Referee: Roberto Garcia

Tijuana v León

November 25, 2012	Tijuana	3–0	León	Estadio Caliente, Tijuana
16:30 PST	F. Martínez 42' D. Riascos 68' R. Ruiz 90'	Report		Referee: Marco Rodriquez

Final

Main article: 2012 Liga MX Apertura Liguilla Final

The first leg of the final was played on November 29, the second leg on December 2.

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Tijuana (2)	4–1	(1) Toluca	2–1	2–0

Kickoffs are given in local time (UTC-6 unless stated otherwise).

First leg

Tijuana v Toluca

November 29, 2012	Tijuana	2–1	Toluca	Estadio Caliente, Tijuana
19:00 PST	F. Martínez 24' P. Aguilar 40' C. Pellerano  41' F. Arce  82'	Report	26' É. Benítez  41' Sinha  80' A. Talavera	Referee: Roberto Garcia

Second leg

Toluca v Tijuana

December 2, 2012	Toluca	0–2	Tijuana	Estadio Nemesio Díez, Toluca
18:00	C. Esquivel  7' D. Novaretti  69'	Report	69' R. Ruiz  71' D. Riascos  85' F. Martínez	Referee: Francisco Chacón

Apertura 2012 winners:
Tijuana 1st Title