- Tomer Hemed - 25'
- Jaushua Sotirio - 80'
- Bruno Fornaroli - 61'
- Callum Timmins - 74'
Wellington Phoenix, Perth Glory play out A-League thriller
A dramatic penalty save by veteran goalkeeper Liam Reddy has secured Perth Glory a 2-2 draw in a thrilling A-League match against Wellington Phoenix in Auckland on Sunday.
Reddy denied Phoenix captain Ulises Davila after the hosts had been awarded a spot kick in the 88th minute when Nicholas D'Agostino felled Cameron Devlin.
The result leaves both teams' finals hopes hanging by a thread with Wellington seventh on the ladder, a point behind Macarthur FC with one match to play.
Perth are three points outside the top six in eighth-place, with two matches left to play.
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Playing at Eden Park in front of a bumper crowd of 22,223 fans, the Phoenix thought they had secured an early penalty when Tim Payne went down inside the box under pressure from Kosuke Ota in just the second minute.
Referee Alex King awarded the spot kick but after a lengthy VAR review reversed his decision.
The home team did hit the front midway through the opening half however when Israeli striker Tomer Hemed found space inside the box and slammed home Louis Fenton's cutback for his 10th goal of the season.
Perth coach Richard Garcia turned to Uruguayan striker Bruno Fornaroli in the second half and when Diego Castro released the substitute in the 61st minute he made no mistake to level the scores.
The Glory's comeback was then complete 14 minutes later when youngster Callum Timmins curled home a sensational 25-metre effort for his first A-League goal.
The Phoenix weren't done however with Davila coming off the bench to mark his return from a hamstring injury and having an instant impact when he found Jaushua Sotirio and the Wellington winger stroked the ball past Reddy from the edge of the area to equalise.
Wellington then surged home for a winner in the dying minutes and thought they'd done enough when Devlin won his penalty only for Reddy's heroics to deny the home team.
In a furious closing few minutes, the Phoenix poured forward and had multiple appeals for another spot kick but King waved them all away before ending the contest.
Perth now return to Australia to face Brisbane Roar on Wednesday in a must-win clash for their finals aspirations while the Phoenix simply have to beat Macarthur in their last regular season fixture next Friday and hope other results go their way to make the top six.
Game Information
Australian A-League Men Standings
Team | GP | W | D | L | GD | P |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Auckland FC | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | +6 | 12 |
Wellington Phoenix FC | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | +4 | 10 |
Melbourne Victory | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | +4 | 10 |
Adelaide United | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | +3 | 10 |
Melbourne City FC | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | +5 | 9 |
Sydney FC | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | +2 | 9 |
Macarthur FC | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | +3 | 6 |
Central Coast Mariners | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | -2 | 6 |
Western United | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 5 |
Western Sydney Wanderers | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | -1 | 4 |
Newcastle Jets | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | -4 | 3 |
Perth Glory | 5 | 0 | 1 | 4 | -14 | 1 |
Brisbane Roar | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | -6 | 0 |