on february 25, 2009, the team won the first leg of the quarterfinals match 2–0 against santos laguna from mexico. the match was played at montreal's olympic stadium in front of a club-record crowd of 55,571. the second leg was held on march 5, 2009 at corona stadium, in torreon, mexico, where the impact led 2–1 at the half (4–1 on aggregate). with the impact only a few minutes from a semi-final berth, santos laguna's carlos quintero scored twice in stoppage time to rally the homeside to a 5–2 victory, thus eliminating the impact from the inaugural concacaf champions league 5–4 on aggregate. following the match, head coach john limniatis commented that his side "should have done better", noting that it was "unfortunate to finish this way".