It seems that the holiday season took its toll on Cruz Azul, making them pay the price for having started preseason on December 28th In December, they fell 2-1 to Leon in the opening match of the Clausura 2026 tournament, a clear indication that they felt the effects of the infamous January slump. The "Celeste Machine" believed that Leon would be intimidated in the first game of the current tournament, but the reality is that the emerald green team rose to the occasion and managed to end a long streak of 11 matches without a victory against the Cementeros, with ten losses and one draw. Leon hadn't won against the Cementeros since the Apertura 2021 tournament when they prevailed 1-0, and for that reason, they came out with that mindset in the first half, taking advantage of Cruz Azul's inability to find their rhythm due to the coordination and balance issues that teams often experience in the heat of competition. Cruz Azul's coach, Nicolas Larcamon, fielded a team without his latest signing, the Argentine Agustin Palavecino, in the starting eleven. The signing, who had worked so hard for the team, started on the bench and entered the fray. when his new squad was already up against the wall, not to mention that Colombian Miguel Borja didn't even make the trip to Bajio.

Perhaps it was a coincidence, but it seemed that Cruz Azul missed Angel Sepulveda, Lorenzo Faravelli, Mateusz Bogusz, but above all, captain Ignacio Rivero, who was always the player who got the Cementeros out of trouble.

Cruz Azul was a team without a backbone in the first half, and it wasn't until the final minutes of the second half that they tried to fix the mess caused by Panamanian Ismael Diaz at the end of the first half and former Club America player Bryan Colula at the start of the second.

The "Celeste Machine" had to adjust its approach, taking off Luka Romero and then Jose Paradela, to try to make up for lost time, and with the presence of debutant Agustin Palavecino,as well as Amaury Morales and Mateo Levy, gave the Cementeros more of a sense of danger, narrowing the gap in the 89th minute and encouraging a heroic comeback that almost materialized with a goal from Carlos Rodolfo Rotondi, but it was disallowed for a tight offside call against Uruguayan Gabriel Fernandez, causing the first defeat for the Sky Blues, as unexpected as it was real.