Cup Wrap: Adelaide City v Adelaide Blue Eagles
Adelaide Blue Eagles hit back hard against Adelaide City in their Westfield FFA Cup encounter at Adelaide City Park, after a dismal performance in their 3-1 loss to City in Round 8 of the PlayStation 4 National Premier League South Australia.
From the kick off to the final whistle of the match, Blue Eagles had all the answers. A solid defence led by Samuel Tesfagabr, Adam Harris, Nathan Nuita and Hirofumi Kochi repelled all Adelaide City advances, while in the midfield Damien Crettenden, Kebede Alemayo and Evan Kounavelis had the better of their Adelaide City opponents.
Nicholas Bucco and Joel Allwright tried valiantly throughout the contest to bring team mates into the game with their hard running but couldn’t penetrate the defensive wall setup by Blue Eagles’ coach Gianluca Lagati.
The hunger in Blue Eagles’ game was on show early, when in the 4th minute of the game Anthony Dimas pounced on an Yvan Boyokino cross to slot home the opening goal from close range.
Crettenden and Kebede had control of the midfield and continually put the Adelaide City defence under pressure as they fed their forwards with numerous opportunities.
City struggled to counter the run and spread by Boyokino, Kounavelis and Trimboli, as Paul Blefari, Mathew Halliday, Shane Tobias and Alex Sunasky defended desperately to keep City in the contest.
A touch of brilliance by Trimboli in the 22’ nearly had Blues Eagles further in front when he controlled a floating cross and hit sweetly on the volley shaving the woodwork.
At the break Blue Eagles held a valuable one goal buffer, which would have pleased their coach.
After the interval, City came out with more urgency and nearly had parity in the first minute of the second half when an Allwright through ball pass into the box, found its way to Farquar who was denied a strike on goal by a brilliant piece of goal keeping by Sourjani.
Blue Eagles thought the mission was all but complete in the 74’ when Dimas squared a pass to Kournavelis who threaded a pass into the path of Boyokino who scored at close range to give Blue Eagles a two goal lead.
City seemed to break free from the tight grip that Blue Eagles had exerted and pulled a goal back in the 79’ when the talented Bucco blasted a shot past a stranded Sourjani.
The Black & Whites were having the best period of the game as Damian Mori introduced Nikola Mileusnic and Jordan Pudler into the fray, but it was all in vain as they failed to find an equaliser to send the game into extra time.
Anthony Trimboli was full of praise for his teammates, for their total commitment in the contest.
“We knew after Saturday’s loss to Adelaide City we had to come out today and put the pressure on from the outset. Our midfield is our strength and the plan was to play as one and defend as one” he said.
“Damien (Crettenden) and Alemayo really give us a good balance in the midfield which allows us to control games as we move the ball forward.”
“After going two goals up, we sat back and tried to soak up the pressure, but we allowed them to score and then we found ourselves in a fight to hold them out.”
Blue Eagles were deserving of their 2-1 victory for their ninety-minute effort, and progress through to the next round.
While Adelaide City will turn their focus to the PlayStation 4 Premier League South Australia and a top four finish.
Written by: Joe Pangallo - 5RTI Sports 531AM
Twitter: @JoJo_ontheball
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