A-League: Champions City throw two-goal lead away to draw, Sydney lose at home

By Sports Desk November 27, 2021

A-League champions Melbourne City threw a two-goal lead away to draw 2-2 away at Adelaide United in their second game of the season.

City kicked their title defence off with a 2-1 win over Brisbane Roar in their opening match and looked set to make it two wins from two after goals from Jamie Maclaren and Andrew Nabbout gave them a 2-0 advantage after 61 minutes.

However, Adelaide struck twice in the closing stages, with Stefan Mauk halving the deficit before Ben Halloran grabbed a dramatic 90th-minute equaliser to stun City.

Elsewhere on Saturday, Sydney, who finished just two points behind City in second last season, slipped to a 1-0 defeat against Macarthur at home after an early Lachlan Rose strike.

Macarthur are now level on points with table-topping City and Wellington Phoenix, who beat Central Coast Mariners 2-1, but are behind the pair on goals scored and sit third.

Gary Hooper scored for the second game running for the Phoenix in their home clash with the Mariners, who pulled one back through Marco Urena before Jaushua Sotirio fired in the winner.

The Nix are now unbeaten in 13 matches stretching back into last season and face Western Sydney Wanderers in their next game.

Related items

  • Chelsea 8-0 Noah: Ruthless Blues stay perfect after first-half rout Chelsea 8-0 Noah: Ruthless Blues stay perfect after first-half rout

    Chelsea continued their quest for the knockout stages of the Europa Conference League by hammering Noah 8-0 on Thursday. 

    Enzo Maresca's side are one of six sides still with a perfect record in the competition, but sit top of the pile with their superior goal difference following their Stamford Bridge mauling.

    Tosin Adarabioyo headed the hosts into a 12th minute lead before Marc Guiu capitalised on Goncalo Silva's loose pass 84 seconds later to double their advantage. 

    Chelsea notched their third from another corner, this time through Axel Disasi, with another defensive error punished by Joao Felix's deft finish over Ognjen Cancarevic. 

    Mykhailo Mudryk then netted the pick of the first-half goals with a curled effort into the top corner, with Felix grabbing his brace four minutes before the interval. 

    It then took Chelsea 24 minutes to get their seventh. Christopher Nkunku saw his initial effort saved by Cancarevic but was able to squeeze in the rebound at the near post. 

    Yan Eteki then fouled Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall in the box, with a penalty given after a VAR review. Nkunku stepped up and smashed the ball down the middle for his fifth goal of the competition this season. 

    Data Debrief: Blues sink Noah's Ark

    Chelsea are on a roll in the Europa Conference League and have now scored 16 goals in their three games in the competition so far. 

    Six of those came in the first half, with their 6-0 advantage at the interval the biggest by an English side at the break of a major European game since Derby County were winning 9-0 against Finn Harps in the 1976-77 UEFA Cup.

    The Blues ended the contest with a whopping 5.44 expected goals (xG) from their 31 shots, compared to Noah's 0.61 from their 15 attempts on Filip Jorgensen's net. 

  • Manchester United 2-0 PAOK: Brilliant Amad earns hosts first Europa League win Manchester United 2-0 PAOK: Brilliant Amad earns hosts first Europa League win

    Amad Diallo scored twice as Manchester United finally earned a maiden victory in the Europa League this season with a 2-0 triumph over PAOK.

    The Red Devils drew their opening three matches of the league phase but the excellent Amad netted twice in the second half after a fine individual display at Old Trafford.

    The winger was unfortunate not to have a first-half penalty after a trip from Abdul Baba, while his deep cross for Rasmus Hojlund was headed straight at the goalkeeper from close range.

    Andre Onana then tipped Mady Camama's dipping half-volley over shortly before the break but Amad broke the deadlock when he brilliantly looped his header over Dominik Kotarski from Bruno Fernandes' delivery.

    Andrija Zivkovic almost responded immediately before Alejandro Garnacho had strong shouts for another spot-kick from Jonny Otto's challenge waved away before Amad tested Kotarski one-on-one.

    United had a huge let off when Tarik Tissoudali was left unmarked in the area and woefully straight at Onana, but Amad settled any nerves with a brilliant bending 20-yard effort into the left-hand side of the goal with 13 minutes remaining.

    Data Debrief: No Greek tragedy as Amad ensures there's no unlucky number seven

    Prior to their victory over the Greek side, United were winless in six consecutive European matches (D4, L2), matching their worst stretch since 1980 to 1983. It means they have still never gone seven without a win in European fixtures.

    Moreover, it maintains a formidable home record against Greek opposition for United, who have now won seven straight matches on their own turf against teams from Greece at an aggregate score of 22-1.

    Amad was, of course, influential in the victory and his opening goal marked his first in the Europa League since netting against Milan on March 11, 2021.

    It marked his first ever brace for United, while five of his goals across all competitions for the club have now come at Old Trafford.

  • Spurs youngsters will learn from Galatasaray defeat, says Postecoglou Spurs youngsters will learn from Galatasaray defeat, says Postecoglou

    Ange Postecoglou believes Tottenham's youngsters will have learned a lot from their 3-2 defeat to Galatasaray in the Europa League on Thursday. 

    Yunus Akgun's stunning opener was cancelled out by 19-year-old Will Lankshear's first senior goal for Spurs, before Victor Osimhen's brace put the hosts in control at the break. 

    Lankshear, however, would be sent off for a second bookable offence on the hour-mark, though Spurs did reduce the deficit through Dominic Solanke with a man less. 

    Postecoglou named several inexperienced European players in his starting line-up, with 18-year-old's Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall also starting at Rams Park. 

    But the Spurs boss believes that his younger players will learn from the experience against Okan Buruk's side. 

    "Look, Will took his goal well, he worked hard for the team. Obviously, he hasn't had a lot of experience in senior football, so he would have learnt a lot today," Postecoglou said.

    "The red card, it was a bit of overenthusiasm at that moment to give away a foul, but he'll learn from that. The same with Lucas. Giving him an understanding of the levels here.

    "It is not easy when you are playing away in Europe. You can only allow them to learn that by exposing them to it.

    "I thought Archie was great. It was a tough game for us defensively at different times, but I think we'll get so much growth out of him because he's not playing in his position.

    "I guess for three teenagers in the starting line-up, I think they'll learn a lot from it, and hopefully it helps with their development."

    At 19-years-old and 201 days, Lankshear is now Tottenham’s youngest goalscorer in major European competition since Harry Kane (18-years-old and 140 days) netted against Shamrock Rovers in the 2011-12 UEFA Europa League.

    However, he became the third-youngest player to both score and be sent off in a Europa League game after Aleksandar Mitrovic for Partizan Belgrade in November 2012 (18-years-old and 67 days) and Federico Chiesa for Fiorentina in December 2016 (19-years-old and 44 days).

    Despite the score-ine, Spurs were comfortably second-best against Galatasaray as they suffered their first defeat in the competition this season. 

    They faced 28 shots from their opponents, their most in a game under Postecoglou. 

    It is the most efforts faced by an English team in a Europa League group stage match since Everton faced 39 shots against Wolfsburg in November 2014.  

    And Postecoglou believes his side only had themselves to blame for the defeat, citing a number of mistakes as their undoing in Turkey. 

    "I just felt it was self-inflicted. We had real simple solutions out there to keep the ball. It wasn't that hard. We showed it with 10 men," Postecoglou added.

    "We just needed to be stronger on the ball and play the kind of football we play every week.

    "Maybe it was a little bit the changes I made and the environment and atmosphere, but the moments that stick out to me was giving the ball away.

    "We were playing through them quite easily with 10 men but with 11 men we had nowhere near that conviction and that was disappointing."

© 2024 SportsMaxTV All Rights Reserved.