Adelaide United was beaten 4-2 by Melbourne City at Coopers Stadium on Thursday night in Round 5 of the Hyundai A-League 2015/16 season.
A brace from Bruno Fornarioli and goals from Aaron Mooy and Erik Paartaku cancelled out a Sergio Cirio curling effort and a Pablo Sanchez penalty.
United were able to create an early chance within the opening ten minutes when Marcelo Carrusca burst forward from midfield and played Bruce Djite through on goal, but Thomas Sorensen was equal to the task and smothered Djite’s strike.
But in the 8th minute, City took a surprising lead. Just before it, Craig Goodwin prevented what looked like a certain goal with an amazing last-ditch challenge on David Williams. From the resulting corner, however, Paartalu found space enough to glance a header past John Hall at the near post.
The Reds were not deterred, though, and looked dangerous on the attack, worrying City’s defence a number of times in the opening 20 minutes. But with 21 minutes on the clock, Jimmy Jeggo picked up a loose ball between City’s defence, streaming forward and striking a great effort on goal that was only just tipped wide by Sorensen.
United continued to be in control of the game and were creating plenty of good chances, when City doubled their lead completely against the run of play through a Mooy thunderbolt that bounced in off the crossbar.
Goodwin was inches away from getting a goal back for the hosts in the 40th minute, when his curling left foot effort drifted just wide of the back post. But the sides went in at the break with score still at 2-0.
The second half started well for United, the home side creating a strong chance that was nearly finished off by Djite at the near post, but, again, Sorensen prevented the goal.
Yet the Reds were dealt another blow when a mix-up at the back saw Fornaroli dink the ball over Hall to make it 3-0.
Once again, United refused to drop their heads, pressing and moving the ball forward at every opportunity and created a number of quality chances. Their hard work eventually paid off when Cirio cut in from the left hand side and curled a brilliant effort into the far post.
Five minutes later, Fornaroli bagged his brace, beating the offside trap and rounding Hall.
With four minutes left on the clock, Bruce Kamau earned a late penalty for his side, which Pablo Sanchez converted, but it was just a consolation.
The Reds’ Head Coach, Guillermo Amor, said everyone must continue being positive because there are good things to take from the game, and the negatives will be improved upon.
“The result is bad for us, we cannot deny this,” Amor said.
“There were obviously some good moments for us, but of course some bad ones as well. It was mistakes that cost us tonight.
“But I am an optimist. I’m a winner. Because of this, I’m annoyed.
“We will watch the game back when we’re calmer and can study it (properly). This is important so we can learn our mistakes and (rectify) them in our training sessions. That is our next task.
“The chances we created were good and the possession we had was also good, but the final result is too and we need to translate it all into goals.
“Our chances need to be more clear-cut because at the moment they’re costing us a lot of effort and need to come much easier.”
Match details:
Thursday, 5 November 2015
Hyundai A-League Round 5
Adelaide United 2 (Cirio 66’ Pablo Sanchez 86’)
Melbourne City 4 (Paartalu 8’ Mooy 35’ Fornaroli 56’ 71’)
Venue: Coopers Stadium
Attendance: 8,632
