André Jardine gears up for his fifth knockout clash with América in Mexico | OneFootball

The end of the year promises strong emotions in the 2025 Apertura Tournament of the Mexican Championship. At the end of this November, the knockout stage of the competition begins, and the three-time consecutive champion of Liga MX, coach André Jardine, is preparing to compete in his fifth Liguilla with América.

The three-time championship, an unprecedented feat since the adoption of the semi-annual tournaments in 1996, has consolidated América as the country's greatest champion with 16 titles. The recent dominance has earned Jardine the nickname "King of the Liguilla" in the local press.

"The Liguilla is the big party of Mexican football. It's as if another competition begins, with all eyes on it. It's not uncommon for the top-performing teams to fall in the quarter-finals, even with the advantage of the regulations. To play this phase, the mental aspect counts a lot," says Jardine.

The Brazilian coach, with a stint at São Paulo, reached the final in all four previous editions, defeating Tigres, Cruz Azul, and Monterrey in the finals of Apertura 2023, Clausura 2024, and Apertura 2024. In the last one, in May, he was the runner-up.

In this edition, América finished the first phase in 4th place and will face the 5th place Monterrey, with defender Sergio Ramos, formerly of Real Madrid. The first leg, away, is expected to take place on November 26 or 27, and the return leg, in Mexico City, on the 29th or 30th.

"Mexican football has a strong block of natural title contenders, but it also allows for surprises that change the course of the Liguilla. This allowed me to compete at a high level with Atlético de San Luis, even competing against teams with much larger budgets. And for this reason, now at América, we need to remain fully attentive to the surprises that the championship always offers," concludes Jardine.

As the commander of Atlético de San Luis, a subsidiary of Atlético de Madrid, the coach competed in three editions and took the club, with one of the smallest budgets in the country, to the knockout stage for the first time in Clausura 2022, repeating the feat in Clausura 2023.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.