The national teams of Guatemala and Honduras advanced to the next round of the Gold Cup after resolving their last and decisive duel against Guadeloupe and Curacao, thus taking a step forward in their preparation for the FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

In the first As a result, the Guatemalans once again demonstrated that they have gradually regained their prominence under the guidance of Mexican coach Luis Fernando Tena to defeat the complicated Caribbean squad that demanded the maximum of them to win by a score of 3-2.

While the Honduran team recovered from a serious error by their goalkeeper Edrick Menjivar in the final minutes of the first half that allowed Curaçao to temporarily tie the match 1-1 and forced his teammates to work hard to get the victory in the last minute with the goal by Luis Palma.

Thus, both Central American teams join Panama and Costa Rica as the representatives of Central American football in this tournament, where the United States, Canada and Mexico also advanced, as well as the guest from the Middle East, Saudi Arabia.

The Guatemalans suffered, but in the end they advanced.

In the case of the Guatemalan squad, they achieved their goal of advancing to the next phase, but the task was not easy, they even had to step on the accelerator against a Guadalupe team that was anything but innocent and on the contrary, very complicated.

Because until the 50th minute, the Central American team under the command of Luis Fernando Tena had the game under control with goals from José Carlos Pinto in the 13th minute via penalty and Olger Escobar in the 29th minute, which made it seem that they would almost walk through to the next phase.

But a penalty just five minutes into the second half began to complicate their plans with the goal scored by Ange-Freddy Plumain that shortened the distance on the scoreboard and made people think of a mess for the chapines, especially because the Caribbean team was emboldened by the goal.

Guatemala calmed the rebellion by increasing their lead again with two goals in the 3-1 scored by Rubio Rubin, but the suffering returned eight minutes later when Mathias Phaeton scored the second goal for the islanders to force the Central Americans to end the game calling the hour.

The Hondurans advanced at the hour

As for Honduras against Curaçao, the Honduran team really made life difficult for themselves with an own goal by goalkeeper Edrick Menjivar in the 42nd minute, when his teammates were already preparing to go to the break with the advantage thanks to the goal scored by Jorge Daniel Álvarez in the 32nd minute.

But that play came from one of the most experienced players in the team led by Colombian Reinaldo Rueda and that put the Caribbean team on the map, since nobody believed the goalkeeper's mistake and that gave life to the eleven managed by the former coach of the Netherlands Dick Advocaat.

The error made Honduras have to face the second half with many risks and they were able to achieve a 2-1 victory until the agony of the game in the 90th minute with the goal by Luis Palma that left the islanders practically lying on the field and the Hondurans' passage to the next phase.