The Western Sydney Wanderers completed a easy 4-0 win over NPL Victoria's Bentleigh Greens in Melbourne tonight, and will face Blacktown City in the Quarter Final.
Bentleigh Greens, currently riding high in the NPL Victoria finals series had the better of the opening 15 minutes, until Robbie Cornthwaite opened the scoring with a tap-in. The goal came as a result of a quick free kick won by Kearyn Baccus & taken by Roly Bonevacia, who spread the ball wide to an unmarked Jumpei Kusukami, his cross found it's way to the back stick & the Wanderers captain couldn't miss the open goal.
Jaushua Sotirio should have contributed at least one, if not two goals to the Wanderers scoreboard. The first opportunity coming from a through ball that the winger latched onto, only to be cut down by the Bentleigh keeper. Referee Shaun Evans was sleeping on the job as usual, and he missed the clear foul, giving a goal kick to Bentleigh. Another chance came for Sotirio when he was put through clean on goal, practically invited to shoot by the keeper who had lost his bearings, only for the weak effort to be cleaned up. The most egregious failure came late on with Sotirio pouncing on a ball that had settled mere meters out from goal, yet somehow managed to find the leaping Bentleigh keeper once again.
Neither side could add to the 1-0 scoreline before the break, but afterwards the Wanderers took complete control. Josh Risdon continued his excellent start to his life at the Wanderers, as he cut back inside onto his left foot and delivered a sterling cross into the middle of the penalty area that Oriol Riera rose to meet with the head, firing past the keeper to double the score.
Riera blotted his copybook shortly after, as Sotirio was taken down in the penalty area. Riera stepped up, sent the keeper the wrong way but his shot bounced off the woodwork, Jumpei tried a flying header to follow up but it fell to Sotirio who had an airswing. Steven Lustica continued his impressive run of pre-season form as he came on as a substitute and hammered a bouncing ball home from a corner in the 78th minute.
Mark Bridge marked his first competitive game back for the Wanderers as he closed out the game with a 92nd minute penalty. Former Wanderer Nick Ward took out Sotirio from behind in the area, the ref had no hesitation handing a penalty to the Wanderers and a second yellow to Ward, he trudged off the pitch before Bridge blasted the ball past the keeper to finish the job with a 4-0 scoreline.
The 4 games for the Quarter Finals are: Sydney FC vs Melbourne City, Gold Coast vs South Melbourne, Blacktown City vs Wanderers & Heidelberg vs Adelaide United.
Edited by mack
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