Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Gosford: Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma's Heverton hit the crossbar with a second half penalty as the K-League side and Australia's Central Coast Mariners were forced to settle for a third consecutive draw in the AFC Champions League following an entertaining 1-1 draw on Tuesday.
Adam Kwasnik's close range finish five minutes after half-time had put the Mariners on course for a first ever win in the AFC Champions League only for Everton Santos (Everton Leandro dos Santos Pintos) to equalise seven minutes later.
But after Mariners defender Joshua Rose was sent-off for hauling down the goal-scoring Brazilian his compatriot Heverton (Héverton Durães Coutinho Alves) chipped the resulting spot kick against the crossbar to leave both sides with three points from their opening three games.
"Fantastic! A brilliant effort! I cannot be prouder of the boys after what they have had to go through with a game on Saturday and just a two day turnaround with the flight back from Brisbane," said Mariners coach Graham Arnold, who watched his side lose 2-0 to Brisbane Roar in the first leg of the A-League end of season play-off semi-final at the weekend.
"The effort we put in was incredible and it was made even tougher with the sending off and playing with 10 men. But we stuck with the 4-3-2 and went for the win because we wanted to try and get the three points and even with 10 men, we had a couple of chances while we rode our luck at the other end."
Mariners' striker John Sutton and Seongnam midfielder Yoon Bitgaram both came close during a evenly contested opening 45 minutes before Alex Wilkinson wasted the best chance of the first half as the Central Coast captain headed straight at visiting goalkeeper Ha Kang-jin five minutes before half-time.
The Mariners, though, could easily have been behind at half-time as Yoon found space in behind the Central Coast defence following good work from Heverton, only for Patrick Zwaanswijk to recover and make a last-ditch block.
And five minutes after half-time the home side broke the deadlock as Ha could only push away Daniel McBreen's low snap shot from inside the area and Kwasnik followed up to fire the ball high into the roof of the net from the edge of the six yard area
The lead though, last just seven minutes as Everton Santos fired an angled shot across goalkeeper Mathew Ryan from inside the penalty area.
And the match swung further in favour of Seongnam two minutes after the hour mark as Rose was sent-off for upending Everton Santos just inside the penalty area as the Brazilian closed in on goal.
But from the resulting penalty, Heverton's chipped effort came back off the face of the crossbar with Ryan helpless.
Mariners' substitute Sam Gallagher and Sutton were denied by Seongnam goalkeeper Ha inside the final 15 minutes before Ryan pushed a last minute strike from Jeon Sung-chan over the crossbar to ensure a share of the spoils.
"I felt we were a little bit heavy in the first half, but coming into the second half we played better," said Seongnam coach Shin Tae-yong.
"We came back from 1-0 down and then we missed the penalty. I feel had we scored the penalty, we would have won the game by three or four goals.
"It was still a game that was in our hands, but it slipped and it has made it tough on ourselves in the Group Stage. We could have moved into first place, but we let that go and from that aspect it is disappointing."
Photo: WSG