Adelaide United suffered a 2-0 loss to Perth Glory at Coopers Stadium on Friday night.
Diego Castro and Andy Keogh were the recipients of two Reds errors as the Glory recorded a convincing win.
Marco Kurz welcomed back Michael Jakobsen into the heart of the defence while Nikola Mileusnić started the match on the substitutes’ bench after returning from injury. Ryan Kitto also started with George Blackwood absent on international duty with the Australia U23s.
A bright start by the Reds was soon overshadowed as Perth began to dominate possession deep in our half.
Joel Chianese was menacing and had two good chances to put the visitors in front inside the opening 20 minutes.
The forward saw his shot on the half-turn take a wicked ricochet which goalkeeper, Paul Izzo, quickly readjusted.
And in the 15th minute the 29-year-old rose highest to squander a free header from Jason Davidson’s cross.
Adelaide began to regain some of the control, keeping possession and probed down the left flank through Scott Galloway and Craig Goodwin.
But Adelaide could not find an opening and conceded by their own undoing in the 35th minute. Izzo’s errant pass was snuffed out by Ivan Franjic, feeding Castro who duly obliged as the Spaniard’s shot took a fortuitous deflection to beat the gloveman.
Izzo atoned moments later when he plucked Chianese’s looping header, bound for the top corner, away from goal.
Adelaide started on the front foot in the second-half and it coincided with Mileusnić being brought on at the break.
His speed and dynamism created several headaches for the Glory defence. United also had two half attempts, first from Goodwin’s stinging drive and then Ryan Strain’s header.
But Adelaide struggled to create guilt-edged opportunities and before they could net an equaliser they went further behind.
Isaías sprayed a loose pass which was cut out by Keogh and he took full-advantage running through on goal and clinically finishing to make it 2-0 and compound a frustrating night for the Reds.
It finished at that scoreline with Perth Glory taking the points.
Key moments:
35’ | GOAL: Izzo’s pass is intercepted by Franjic and his pass finds Castro whose shot takes a massive deflection off Galloway, wrong-footing Izzo.
44’ | SAVE! Izzo makes a brilliant diving save to his right to prevent a Glory second after Chianese’s header seemed destined to go in.
70’ | GOAL: Keogh punishes Isaías’ wayward pass to double the visitors’ lead.
Match details:
Friday, 15 March 2019
Hyundai A-League 2018/19 – Round 22
Adelaide United 0
Perth Glory 2 (Castro 35’ Keogh 70’)
Venue: Coopers Stadium
Crowd: 7,853
