Bruno Fornaroli and Callum Timmins were Glory’s goal heroes on Wednesday evening as Richard Garcia’s men came back from 2-0 down to secure an impressive 2-2 draw with high-flying Melbourne City at AAMI Park.
Click HERE for full match highlights.
The visitors looked to have a mountain to climb when Florin Berenguer and Matthew Leckie fired the hosts into a two-goal lead inside the opening half-hour.
But Bruno Fornaroli halved the arrears almost immediately with a close-range header and then early in the second-half, Timmins rifled home a superb low shot from just outside the box to lock it up at 2-2.
The midfielder’s first goal of the season set up a tense final 30 minutes, during which respective goalkeepers Liam Reddy and Thomas Glover were both called into action on a number of occasions.
Ultimately, however, there were to be no further goals in what was an entertaining contest and Garcia was left to reflect upon a welcome and well-deserved point which lifted Glory to ninth in the table.
Click HERE to view Garcia’s post-match media conference in full.
“I’m very proud of a group that has gone through a lot and which could easily, after the last couple of results, have gone under with those two goals,” he said.
“But they showed the resilience that we keep talking about to come back and I think they’ve shown resilience throughout the last four months.
“It’s been a tiresome four months of travelling and I think they’ve dealt with it very well.
“We started a little bit slow, but I thought our football was good and the players kept trying to play the way we want to play.
“I felt we had the better of the chances in the first half and sometimes that’s the difference.
“Sometimes, when you’ve got a side full of internationals, they put those chances away.
“That’s something we’ve got to improve on, but the fact that we keep creating chances and doing very well with the ball is very encouraging.”
Glory came close to making the perfect start on a mild night in the Victorian capital, Daniel Stynes and Nick Fitzgerald combining to release Jack Clisby and the defender striking the foot of the post with an angled shot.
Literally seconds later, however, City hit the front as Scott Jamieson fed Leckie down the left, he slipped the ball inside to Berenguer and the French import thumped the ball past Reddy.
Glory came close to equalising immediately, Stynes sending Timmins through clear on goal, but Thomas Glover made a fine save with his legs and the hosts capitalised shortly afterwards when Leckie found space in the box and picked out the bottom corner with a powerful strike.
If the home fans expected the visitors to crumble at this point, that notion was quickly dispelled as Fornaroli pulled one back just moments later.
Kosuke Ota delivered the deep cross from the left, Glover flapped at the ball and missed it and Glory’s leading scorer was handed the simple task of nodding home his sixth goal of the season from point-blank range.
Having weathered some sustained City pressure early in the second half, the men in purple duly restored parity just short of the hour-mark with a fine team goal.
Stynes and Ota featured prominently in some patient and intelligent build-up play and when the ball was eventually laid back for Timmins on the edge of the box, he slammed an unstoppable shot past Glover.
The home goalkeeper was then forced to make a double save from Clisby and Fornaroli as the game moved into its final quarter and Reddy matched his City counterpart by producing an acrobatic stop to foil Carl Jenkinson at the other end.
Both sides pressed hard for a winner in the latter stages, but ultimately neither ‘keeper was to be tested again before the final whistle.
Match Details
Melbourne City 2 (Berenguer 8′, Leckie 29′) Perth Glory 2 (Fornaroli 31′, Timmins 56′)
Half-time: 2-1
Referee: Alex King
AAMI Park
Melbourne City: 1.Thomas GLOVER (GK), 3.Scott JAMIESON (C), 4.Nuno Pereira REIS, 5.Rostyn GRIFFITHS (17.Stefan COLAKOVSKI 62′), 6.Carl JENKINSON, 7.Matthew LECKIE (23.Marco TILIO 43′), 9.Jamie MACLAREN, 10.Florin BERENGUER-BOHRER, 15.Andrew NABBOUT (16.Taras GOMULKA 80′), 18.Connor METCALFE, 22.Curtis GOOD
Substitutes not used: 33.Matthew SUTTON (GK), 14.Tsubasa ENDO, 20.Manuel PUCCIARELLI, 36.Kerrin STOKES
Yellow Cards: Jamieson
Red Cards: None
Perth Glory: 33.Liam REDDY (GK), 5.Jonathan ASPROPOTAMITIS, 8.Kosuke OTA, 9.Bruno FORNAROLI, 11.Nick FITZGERALD (38.Ciaran BRAMWELL 75′), 13.Brandon O’NEILL (C), 14.Jack CLISBY (43.Adam ZIMARINO 75′), 18.Daniel STYNES (7.Adrian SARDINERO 62′), 19.Callum TIMMINS (26.Giordano COLLI 66′), 21.Antonee BURKE-GILROY, 29.Darryl LACHMAN
Substitutes not used: 12.Cameron COOK (GK), 6.Osama MALIK, 16.Darko STANOJEVIC
Yellow Cards: O’Neill
Red Cards: None
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