The heat is on for the second place of the A-League’s regular season!
With Melbourne City sitting out this round, it was all up to Wellington Phoenix and Perth Glory to reduce the margin of Erick Mombaerts’ team and catch them (or, in Perth’s case, even surpass them) on the ladder.
But the final outcome will create even more tension for the weeks to come, with the western Australian club dropping a couple of points in Brisbane and the New-Zealanders making no mistakes as they hosted newcomers to the league Western United.
It was a hard-fought battle at the Dolphin on Saturday afternoon, with both the “purples” and the Robbie Fowler’s Brisbane Roar looking just as likely to open the score.
Eventually though it was the visitors who broke the deadlock, with Bruno Fornaroli finding his 11th goal of the season.
Despite things looking pretty even inside the pitch, it all seemed as if the Glory would find their ninth win of the season.
But five minutes before the end of the game, Macaulay Gillesphey brought both teams back on level terms, to end the game in a 1-1 draw.
One day earlier, the ‘Nix completely dominated their game against Western United, with the final 2-0 result not telling the full story of what went on inside the pitch.
The home side ended the game with 21 opportunities, while their opponents could barely create nine, in an encounter where they were reduced to a spectator’s position.
Goals provided by Liberato Cacace and David ball ensured that the home side would find the breakthrough they needed to climb up on the ladder.
These results bring Melbourne City, Perth Glory and Wellington all on equal terms at second place with 30 points.
Meanwhile on Friday night, the Western Sydney Wanderers and Adelaide United provided a scoring bonanza for fans at Sydney’s Bankwest, in a game that had seven goals in total.
The final result was 5-2 in the home side’s favour, with Mitchell Duke scoring a brace for the Wanderers.
Last night, the Victory were barely able to scrape through the McDonalds Jones with a single point from their battle with bottom-of-the-table Newcastle Jets, who took the lead in the encounter through Roy O’ Donovan.
The visitors equalised thanks to an Ola Toivonen effort but couldn’t do much else, with a position in the finals already too far out of reach for them and getting even further.
Tonight champions Sydney FC will play the Mariners at Gosford for a chance to break away even further and come closer to the premiership.
A-LEAGUE ROUND 20 RESULTS
Wellington Phoenix-Western United 2-0 (29′ Cacace, 90′ Ball)
Western Sydney Wanderers- Adelaide United 5-2 (5′ Schwegler, 25′ Muller, 27′, 38′ Duke, 73′ Cox – 13′ pen. McGree, 22′ Halloran)
Brisbane Roar-Perth Glory 1-1 (85′ Gillesphey – 33′ Fornaroli)
Newcastle Jets- Melbourne Victory 1-1 (24′ O’ Donovan – 49′ Toivonen)
