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| Melbourne Heart and Wellington Phoenix show their passion Photo: Anita Milas/Goal! Weekly |
A wonder strike by
Barbados International Paul Ifill snatched a point for Wellington Phoenix in
their fiery 1-1 draw with Melbourne Heart on Saturday evening.
Heart took the lead through Eli Babalj but Wellington were
able to defend well and snatch a late goal through Paul Ifill to take a point
back to New Zealand.
Melbourne Heart went into the big clash unchanged from their
1-1 draw with Brisbane Roar while Ricki Herbert made two changes to his side after
their 2-0 defeat of Gold Coast United. Nick Ward and Tony Lochhead come in for
the injured Leo Bertos and Alex Smith.
Heart started the game on the front foot and on four minutes
Michael Marrone put in a great ball into the box but Eli Babalj headed wide.
Ward for the visitors fired wide to create their first
chance before Jonatan Germano for Heart had the best chance in a high temp
opening minutes.
Mate Dugandzic played in Fred who back-heeled to the
onrushing Argentine who put his effort over the crossbar.
On 12 minutes Heart created another chance but the Phoenix
defence denied the hosts.
First when Manny Muscat blocked Babalj’s first effort before
the ball fell for Germano whose effort was denied by Lochhead on the line
controversially. The New Zealand international blocked Germano’s shot with his
hand but the referee Peter Green didn’t give the handball.
Although Heart were denied they continued to push with
Skipper Fred but Paston made a fantastic save to deny the Brazilian.
Three minutes later Heart had another huge chance to open
the scoring but Curtis Good’s header was denied by a combined effort by Ben
Sigmund and Paston.
Phoenix were looking to do most of their damage on the
counter and Dani Sanchez put in a great ball into Muscat but the Maltese
International headed over.
But on 32 minutes Heart deservedly opened the scoring after
Dugandzic put in a brilliant cross to Babalj whose header squeezed past Paston
into the bottom corner.
Five minutes before the break Wellington were denied a
clear-cut penalty when Paul Ifill was brought down by Fred from behind.
That fired up both sides and after Andrew Durante fouled Germano
both sides were in an all-in-brawl in which Sigmund and Dugandzic were booked.
The opening minutes of the second-half had no real clear-cut
chances but substitute Craig Goodwin did get into a great position but failed
to pick out an unmarked Babalj.
The game became a game of two sides that couldn’t pick out
the final ball and a lack of decision making but both defences did well.
Wayne Srhoj of all players made a great run on 74 minutes
but his final ball across the face of the goal wasn’t good enough in which
Paston collected easily.
On 80 minutes Wellington through Paul Ifill equalised with a
thundering drive into the net past Clint Bolton, who hasn’t had much to do all
evening.
Three minutes later Heart were looking to take the lead back
but substitute Alex Terra hit his effort into the side netting.
Wellington were able to hold onto Heart’s late push for a
winner and to take a point back to New Zealand.
The Phoenix moved two points behind Brisbane Roar with Heart
moving two points behind Perth.
Melbourne Heart forward Dugandzic vented just how
frustrating it was to concede late on. “It’s very frustrating. Again we
conceded a late goal today which was very frustrating in the scene that we did
dominate the play in the first-half, did create the chances and it was just
decision making or the quality of the final ball that let us down.”
Wellington Phoenix coach Ricki Herbert was happy with his
side’s first-half after a poor first. “I thought we were pretty poor in the
first-half and I think collectively we all accept that. This is a team that
works hard bloody hard together and I didn’t think that resembled it. But I
thought the second-half was very, very good. It was probably at the level that
we need to be at if we are going to be competitive in the finals series.”
Match Stats:
Melbourne
Heart
1. Clint Bolton (GK), 2. Michael Marrone, 4. Simon Colosimo, 5.
Fred (C) (3. Brendan Hamill 88’), 6. Matthew Thompson (27. Craig Goodwin 62’),
10. Wayne Srhoj, 13. Jonatan Germano (11. Alex Terra 81’), 16. Aziz Behich, 18.
Curtis Good, 19. Eli Babalj, 23. Mate Dugandzic
Substitutes
Not Used
30. Sebastian Mattei (GK)
Goals
Babalj 32’
Yellow
Cards
Dugandzic 42’
Wellington Phoenix
1. Mark Paston, 2. Manny Muscat, 3. Tony Lochhead (14.
Mirjan Pavlovic 63’), 6. Tim Brown, 8. Paul Ifill, 9. Chris Greenacre, 12. Nick
Ward (13. Nikolas Tsattalios 72’), 17. Vince Lia, 18. Ben Sigmund, 21. Dani
Sanchez (24. Alex Smith 63’), 22. Andrew Durante (C)
Substitutes Not Used
20. Tony Warner (GK)
Goals
Ifill 80’
Yellow
Cards
Durante 42’, Sigmund 42’, Muscat 44’
MOTM: Fred
6,759 @ AAMI Park
Report also here
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