Adelaide United and Melbourne Victory have played out a 1-1 draw at Adelaide Oval on Friday night in front of 33,126 spectators.
It was a tense start to the match with both sides trading chances on goal in the early stages. But it was Victory with the most obvious through Gui Finkler, however his effort went just wide of Eugene Galekovic’s goal.
Adelaide United worked their way into the game well and had a number of good opportunities to break the deadlock – Nigel Boogaard and Sergio Cirio with our best.
Yet, neither side were able to get on the score sheet before half-time and went into the break on par.
And the start of the second half saw a much hungrier set of sides return onto the pitch, as the intensity increased and so too the strength of challenges, with a total of seven yellow cards issued by the end of the match.
The Reds consistent pressure proved too much for the Victory to contain and in the 85th minute Sergio Cirio put Adelaide up 1-0.
Cirio was put through behind the Victory defence on the left-flank, cut back to put the ball on his right foot, and curled a sensational effort into the far post of Nathan Coe’s goal.
This sparked an almost immediate response from Kevin Muscat’s men, as just four minutes later Fahid Ben Khalfallah got on the end of a half-cleared Victory corner and bundled the ball into the net.
After the match, Reds coach, Josep Gombau, said that although his side wasn’t able to hold on to their lead, the overall performance was an encouraging display of football.
“In my opinion, I think we had the better chances to score in the second half,” Gombau said.
“The first half was very equal – we had one (chance), they had one (chance), but in the second half we had more.
“For me it was a good game of football and at a high standard. Both teams knew what they were doing and it wasn’t that we played football to just share the ball.
“Both sides, tactically, were ready and were doing their job very well.”
Gombau said that his and his squad’s focus will now switch to the do-or-die quarterfinal against Sydney FC in the Westfield FFA Cup on Tuesday evening, with preparation already underway.
Match Details
Friday, 17 October 2014
Hyundai A-League 2014/15 Season – Round 2
Adelaide United 1 (Cirio 85’)
Melbourne Victory 1 (Khalfallah 89’)
Venue: Adelaide Oval, Adelaide
Attendance: 33,126
Adelaide United: Galekovic (c), Boogaard, McGowan, Pablo Sanchez (Marrone 89′), Isaias, Cirio, Carrusca, Djite, Goodwin (Ferreira 80′), Jeggo, Elrich
Melbourne Victory: Coe, Geria (Mahazi 79′), Milligan (c), Finkler, Berisha, Barbarouses, Thompson (Ben Khalfallah 71′), Georgievski, Delpierre, Valeri, Leijer (Broxham 64′)
Red cards: n/a
Yellow cards: Leijer (31′), Elrich (48′), Finkler (54′), Milligan (68′), Pablo Sanchez (75′), Ben Khalfallah (77′), Boogaard (78′)
