Adelaide City inflicted a first defeat of the season on West Adelaide, continuing their impressive run with a convincing 4-0 win in Round 2 of Westfield FFA Cup Qualifying at Adelaide City Park on Saturday. 

Anthony Costa maintained his rich vein of scoring form with a double. His strike separated the sides at the interval, while he later netted a second. El Qioin El Wali also netted a brace, scoring just past the hour mark and rounding out the tally in the final moments.

Adelaide City are now in the quarter finals and creative midfielder Nicholas Bucco praised a solid team performance. 

“I thought we played well. We knew they’d come out and play football. We soaked it up, put them under pressure and when we got the ball utilised the wings and Costa to good effect,” he said. 

“We tend to hold our shape. Then, once we won the ball we could break forward quickly and early. The defence was solid and didn’t give them much. 

“This means everything for the club. Last year we were back on the national stage for the first time in a decade. We want to win the Cup, and the reward of playing the FFA Cup is fantastic. The League is number one, but we want to win every game.” 

West Adelaide’s Robby Lippett says the result should serve as a wake-up call for the Blue and Whites. 

“It was disappointing. We didn’t play as well as we did last time against them. We didn’t deliver on the day as we planned it during the week,” the defender stated. 

“We had a lot more possession. They sat back and waited for us, maybe we had too much time on the ball and over thought things. 

“It’s disappointing as it was our first loss. But we’ll take it as a wake-up call. It shows we can make mistakes and now we have a huge game next week against Croydon. We’ll bounce back. It’s a shame to get knocked out, but we will now focus on the league.” 

Adelaide City had won its last four games in all competitions, scoring 22 goals in the process. West came into the contest sitting top of the Playstation 4 National Premier League South Australia table. 

The home side threatened inside the opening quarter hour, with Bucco and Costa both firing wide of the target. 

Costa then turned sharply, but while generating power in his shot could only hit straight at goalkeeper Lewis Moss. 

At the other end City custodian Ryan Veitch was forced to knock the ball behind for a corner to deny a low Tom Briscoe attempt. 

Adelaide City then opened the scoring in the 34^th minute. El Wali broke clear down the left flank and centred for Costa to tuck his shot past Moss. 

El Wali spurned a fantastic opportunity on the hour mark. City broke clear only for the Frenchman to blast wide of the target with the goal at his mercy. 

Yet he made up for it moments later. This time El Wali finished truly after latching on to Bucco’s ball forward to extend City’s advantage. 

West tried to pull one back, with Yudai Yamaguchi’s header tipped over the top by Veitch. 

They were vulnerable on the counter as the game entered the final 10 minutes. Joel Allwright’s ball over the top found Costa and although his first touch took him wide, the striker was able to find the far corner. 

The Black and Whites joy was complete in the 88^th minute as El Wali followed up after Fumiya Suzuki’s shot was parried, grabbing his second of the afternoon to seal the win. 

Article by Luca Cetta - @l_cetta