Western Sydney & Wellington Phoenix played out an entertaining 2-2 draw with the Wanderers having to fight back from a 1 goal deficit twice to earn a point through goals to Bozhidar Kraev & Nicolas Milanovic.
Wellington took advantage of the strip of sun stretching across the back post area to open the scoring in the 20th minute. It was a simple corner to the back post, all of 3 yards out from goal but the sun apparently stopped everyone on the defensive end from seeing the ball away, leaving Corban Piper to jump and head the ball down with no-one on the back post to stop it.
The Wanderers hit back 15 minutes later through former Phoenix player Kraev. A sterling piece of football that began with Milanovic, who played a triangular 1-2 pass with Zac Sapsford to put Milanovic into space on the byline, his cut back enabled Kraev to take a step back and shoot with the keeper having come out to the near post it was an open net and he made no mistake to level the game at 1-1.
The Nix regained their lead through Francisco Geraldes who scored the first goal for Wellington in the 69th minute, standing up Gabriel Cleur who watched and watched and watched until Geraldes finally decided to shoot on his left foot, Lawrence Thomas had a weak hand and even if he got a touch it did little to stop the path into the back of the net.
In the final minute of regulation the Wanderers levelled the match through their seasons top scorer Nicolas Milanovic, who added his 10th goal of the season. Brandon Borrello started the move by dribbling through the middle of the pitch, found Milanovic in space, and instead of playing Milanovic onto his right foot the defender made the mistake of inviting a patented Milanovic cutback on the left, and it was perfect. A sweet strike of venom and accurate, in the top corner on the far side. 2-2 with 4 minutes of stoppage time to play, and Marcus Antonsson nearly took the lead with a similar shot but palmed away by the keeper.
The draw extends the Wanderers unbeaten run to 7 games but the single point against the team in 11th was hardly the result Alen Stajcic would have been looking for but he would be happy at the determination shown to come back from a goal down twice.
The Wanderers next match is against Auckland FC in Auckland on Saturday the 5th of April with kick-off at 3pm Sydney time.
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