Luis Palma was the man of the moment for Honduras last week as the Celtic winger scored twice to sink Mexico in the CONCACAF Nations League quarter-final.
The 2-0 lead gave Palma’s Honduras a great chance of progressing to meet Alistair Johnston’s Canada in the semi-final after the Celtic winger was deadly against Mexico in the first leg.
Coming on as a substitute in that match, Palma scored with his first touch to put Honduras 1-0 up and then sealed the win with a late second goal to give Honduras a healthy advantage for the follow-up match in the Estadio Azteca.
However, after holding out for 42 minutes, Raul Jimenez opened the scoring before a late collapse saw Honduras concede a further three goals after Henry Martin (72 & 90+7) and Jorge Sanchez (85) sunk Palma and his teammates for the second year in a row.
Luis Palma’s lack of Celtic game time exposed for Honduras vs Mexico
After praising Palma for his first-leg Honduras performance, boss Reinaldo Rueda pointed the finger at the Celtic winger after he was exposed by the Mexicans as the weak link in the early morning defeat.
Rueda told Deportes TVC, “For all we know from the previous match at the Azteca, the altitude is hard for Luis when he comes with rhythm and today without rhythm it was going to be harder for him.
“He played a good half but the full-back he had overcame him and he was left alone with Rosales and that’s where Mexico attacked us a lot.
“We had Obregón, who is a striker, a goal scorer, and to stop that full-back and the offensive depth to accompany Yustin Arboleda, but unfortunately he didn’t get into the game and was unbalanced.”
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