Adelaide United have suffered an away defeat to Macarthur FC at Campbeltown Stadium.
In an action-packed afternoon, Iran-born Daniel Arzani scored the first, provided the assist for the second and hit the bar with a free-kick.
Arzani also found his way into the referee’s book, earning a yellow card from Shaun Evans after celebrating his goal by lifting up his shirt to reveal a reference to Mahsa Amini, an Iranian woman who died in suspicious circumstances in Tehran last month.
She was being held by the country’s morality police at the time, who arrested her after saying she was wearing her hijab too loosely.
Just a couple of minutes before Arzani’s goal, Adelaide squandered a great chance to take the lead themselves.
Craig Goodwin got behind the Bulls defence and cut the ball back to an unmarked George Blackwood near the penalty spot, but Blackwood’s tame shot lacked the power to beat Filip Kurto
Arzani made them pay moments later, when he received a pass from Lachie Rose and stroked the ball home with a delightful right-foot finish from just inside the penalty area on 27 minutes.
Arzani returned the favour half-an-hour later with a surging run down the left and perfect cut back for Rose to stab home from close range.
On the hour, Arzani almost scored again when he rattled the crossbar with a free-kick.
Adelaide had more possession and 11 more shots, but were far more wasteful than Macarthur, who lost captain Ulises Davila after 10 minutes with a hamstring injury.
The Reds put the ball in the net three times, but all were ruled out.
Hiroshi Ibusuki twice headed the ball into the net – either side of half-time – but one was rubbed out for offside and the other for a foul, while Ben Warland’s late effort was also disallowed for offside.
