Preview: CF Montreal vs Club Leon - prediction, team news, lineups

Meeting in a competitive fixture for the first time, CF Montreal host Club Leon on Tuesday at Saputo Stadium in the opening match for both teams at the 2025 Leagues Cup.

Last year, Le CFM made it into the knockout stage of this tournament for the first time, exiting in the round of 32 versus the Philadelphia Union (2-0), while Leon failed to make it beyond the group phase in 2024, finishing with just a single point.

Match preview

The 2025 Major League Soccer season has been a massive disappointment, but Montreal may have instilled a little confidence in themselves following an impressive showing on Friday.

Making the playoffs seems like a long shot for this team, who are 17 points below the Eastern Conference playoff line, though they won their last match 3-1 over the New England Revolution.

Montreal head into this encounter on a three-match winless run at Saputo Stadium across all competitions, winning just one domestic home contest in 2025 (1-0 versus New York City FC).

Marco Donadel’s men have given up the second-most goals in the MLS Eastern Conference this year (46), conceding three or more in four of their previous seven competitive home games.

Montreal have never lost a Leagues Cup encounter when netting in the opening 45 minutes of a match, doing so on only two occasions in their history.

Le CFM are undefeated at home in this competition versus Mexican opposition, defeating Pumas on penalties in 2023, while collecting a 3-2 triumph over Atletico San Luis in this phase a year ago.

We are three matches into the new Liga MX Apertura season, and Club Leon are still struggling to find any kind of consistency in that competition.

It is a story that Eduardo Berizzo has seen since the end of last season, with this team losing six of their previous seven competitive fixtures, all in Liga MX.

They are also winless in their last seven competitive away matches, losing those previous three, all to Cruz Azul, with Leon netting just once in each of those encounters.

Since lifting the inaugural Leagues Cup in 2021, Leon have suffered just one defeat in normal time of this group stage versus an MLS opponent, losing 2-1 versus the Portland Timbers last July.

In this phase of the competition, they have only collected one triumph after 90 minutes when netting the opening goal, doing so in both of their group fixtures last year.

Los Panzas Verdes have never triumphed in a competitive match in Canada in normal time, though they won a marathon shootout at the Vancouver Whitecaps in the 2023 group phase.

CF Montreal form (all competitions):

Club Leon form (all competitions):

Team News

In their victory on Friday over New England, Montreal were without captain Samuel Piette, who had an upper-body injury, Fabian Herbers was dealing with a problem in his lower body and Efrain Andres Morales was not registered, having only recently come to the team in a trade with Atlanta United.

Prince Osei Owusu continued his hot streak in that match, having now scored six times in his last six competitive games, with their other goals on Friday coming courtesy of Dante Sealy and Olger Escobar.

As for Leon, there was only one change made to their starting 11 from matchday two to three of the Apertura campaign, with Sebastian Santos coming in for Nicolas Fonseca.

An own goal courtesy of Cruz Azul’s Jesus Orozco this past weekend was all they could manage on the scoresheet, suffering a 4-1 loss to the reigning CONCACAF Champions Cup winners.

CF Montreal possible starting lineup:

Sirois; Bugaj, Craig, Alvarez, Petrasso; Waterman, Loturi; Sealy, Vilsaint, Clark; Owusu

Club Leon possible starting lineup:

Garcia; Medina, Barreiro, Frias, Reyes; Moreno, Echeverria, E. Rodriguez; Beltran; Funes Mori, J. Rodriguez

We say: CF Montreal 1-2 Club Leon

Despite their struggles domestically, we anticipate the experience of Leon will propel them to victory against a side that leak goals and are littered with players that are not used to playing at such a high level.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.