MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -- Guadalajara, Mexico's most popular club, missed out on the Clausura championship quarter-finals despite beating defending champions UNAM 2-1 in their final game on Sunday.

Necaxa, UANL and Santos Laguna took the final three places in the last eight, joining Morelia, Cruz Azul, America, UAG and Monterrey, who had qualified with games to spare.

The latter pair finished third in Groups One and Three respectively and qualified by having the best overall records of the teams who finished outside the top two of the three six-team groups.

UNAM, coached by former Real Madrid and Mexico striker Hugo Sanchez, finished at the bottom of Group One after a miserable campaign in which they won only four out of 17 games.

Guadalajara, who field only Mexican players, took control as Rafael Medina and Ramon Morales, from a penalty, put them 2-0 ahead in 35 minutes at the Jalisco stadium.

Brazilian Ailton pulled one back for the Pumas, who had won the last two championships and had been set a target by Sanchez of winning five in a row.

It was the second time in five days that UNAM had lost to a club owned by Jorge Vergara, the flamboyant businessman who has promised to turn Guadalajara into the envy of Latin America.

Last Wednesday, UNAM went down 2-0 away to Costa Rica's Saprissa, another Vergara outfit, in the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions Cup final.

Despite the win, Guadalajara finished third in Group Two, one point behind UANL, who won 3-0 at Puebla.

Their goals came in a 16-minute spell in the second half -- two from Aldo De Nigris and one from Brazilian Irenio Soares.

Necaxa finished top of Group Three by hammering eight-man Pachuca 5-0.

Alfredo Moreno scored twice while Rodolfo Espinoza, Diego Martinez and Ariel Lopez shared the other goals for Necaxa. Pachuca had Cesareo Victorino, Fausto Pinto and Octavio Valdez sent off in the second half.

Argentine striker Matias Vuoso, the championship's leading scorer, took his tally to 15 by scoring both goals in Santos Laguna's 2-0 win over Cruz Azul. The win took Santos second in Group Three while Cruz Azul still finished top of Group Two.

Group One winners Morelia beat Atlante 2-1 to finish their campaign with 35 points from 17 games, the best record in the competition.

Volatile Mexico striker Cuauhtemoc Blanco and former Argentina forward Claudio Lopez were on target as America beat Atlas 5-2 at the Azteca stadium to finish second in the same group.

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