CF Monterrey quickly put Forge under siege, demonstrating their quality with some quick ball movement. In the eighth minute, Corona made a clever run in behind the Forge line, but his effort was saved well by Jassem Koleilat.
Forge, however, settled well shortly thereafter and started to get more of the ball. In the 12th minute, Tristan Borges created a yard of space for himself at the top of the box with some clever dribbling and struck the crossbar with a thunderous strike. It would have been a perfect start for the visitors.
Instead, it was Rayados who found a moment of quality from a set piece in the 20th minute. On a central free kick near the halfway line, a stunning delivery from Canales found the head of Berterame, who powered the ball past Koleilat to give Monterrey a 1-0 lead.
But the visitor’s heads did not drop, and Borges in particular continued to find good pockets of space in attacking areas and in the 25th minute nearly picked out Kyle Bekker on a deflected cross into the box. However, spending most of the half defending deep in their half, Forge struggled to get forward quickly enough and tended to leave their attackers isolated.
Canales nearly added a second for the hosts in the 38th minute with a well-shaped strike from the top of the box, but Koleilat was once again equal to the task with a strong diving save. That was the last real chance of the half, with Forge trailing 1-0 in the match and 3-0 on aggregate after 45 minutes.
Knowing that they had a commanding lead in the series, Monterrey made a stunning four substitutions at the half — including bringing off Canales.
Just as he did in the first leg, one of those substitutes, Cortizo, made an instant impact off the bench. In the 48th minute, after Óliver Torres picked him out in the box, he shifted it over to his left foot and sent a shot goalward. His strike took several deflections on the way through, but none of them were enough to slow its momentum and it nestled in the bottom corner to make the score 2-0.
Ten minutes later, Monterrey added another. This time Torres slipped through Berterame, and the Mexican international’s perfectly placed strike across goal made the match 3-0. Minutes later, Berterame was removed. His replacement, Roberto de la Rosa, came close to finding a fourth for Monterrey shortly after he joined the match, but couldn’t quite connect on his sliding effort.
In the 69th minute, Forge looked to have a great chance as Brian Wright got in behind the Monterrey backline. But his breakaway chance was denied by Luis Cárdenas before the offside flag was raised.
Three minutes later, Wright was himself removed from the match as Forge made a triple substitution bringing on young trio Khadim Kane, Maxime Filion and Amadou Koné for a moment they surely will not forget in their young careers.
Forge pressed for a consolation goal late, creating a number of good chances. In the 77th minute, Koné saw his shot stopped by Cárdenas, but Hojabrpour couldn’t bury the rebound, continuing a frustrating series of missed chances for Forge over the course of these two matches. Substitute Ben Paton then tested Cárdenas from distance with a stunning volley, forcing a good save.
Forge were then forced to play the final six minutes, plus stoppage time, down a man as fullback Marko Jevremović had to be removed from the match through injury, with Forge already making all five substitutions.
Monterrey advance to the round of 16, where they will take on the winners of Canadian Champions the Vancouver Whitecaps and Deportivo Saprissa — which will be contested later in the month.
BOX SCORE
Lineups
CF Monterrey: Cárdenas; Chávez (Medina 46′), Leone, Moreno, Arteaga; Rodríguez; Corona (Valenzuela 46′), Fimbres (Torres 46′), Deossa, Canales (Cortizo 46′); Berterame (de la Rosa 62′)
Forge FC: Koleilat; Rama (Paton 79′), Achinioti-Jönsson, Nimick, Jevremović; Hojabrpour, Bekker (Kane 71′), Borges; Choinière (Koné 71′), Wright (Filion 71′), Babouli (Jensen 56′)
Goals
20′ — Germán Berterame (CF Monterrey)
48′ — Jordi Cortizo (CF Monterrey)
58′ — Germán Berterame (CF Monterrey)
Discipline
18′ — Yellow: Tristan Borges (Forge FC)
31′ — Yellow: Nelson Deossa (CF Monterrey)
70′ — Yellow: David Choinière (Forge FC)
81′ — Yellow: Stefan Medina (CF Monterrey)
83′ — Yellow: Jorge Rodríguez (CF Monterrey)
