Maroc - WESTSYDNEYFOOTBALL.COM - reports. - 12/Sep 12:11

Adelaide March On To Cup Semi

Western Sydney Wanderers continued their wandering Australia Cup odyssey with a visit to Adelaide, the home side coming out on top in extra time after taking advantage of poor Wanderers finishing to edge the fixture by 2 goals to 1. Although none of the recent signings Jordan Holmes, Dean Pelekanos, Juan Mata or James Temelkovski were in the squad, Bozhidar Kraev was in line to make his debut off the bench. Joshua Brillante was absent after a knock in training and was replaced by Anthony Pantazopoulos. Adelaide selected former Wanderer Dylan Pierias to start. Western Sydney started brightly, with chances from Borrello and Badolato coming from Adelaide giving the ball away in defence. After 8 minutes of Wanderers dominance Adelaide opened the scoring completely against the run of play. Jesse Cameron allowed Austin Ayoubi to cut inside and beat him for pace, his right footed strike from well outside the area caught Vidackovic flat footed in goal and his late dive didn't get close to stopping the strike. Adelaide took the momentum from their goal and converted it into dominating possession, after half an hour they had over 60% possession with the Wanderers struggling to put together more than a couple of passes and with little attacking chances. Just before half-time Adelaide hit the crossbar after a dismal failure to pull up a Reds player for a blatant push in the back. After knocking Brandon Borrello to the floor Mauk flicked it on for a team-mate and his instinctual header flew onto the bar and out for a goal-kick. Nicolas Milanovic finally got a chance to break out, getting on the end of a long ball from defence, faked a shot to turn inside and from 6 yards out and only the keeper to beat he fluffed his lines, smashing the shot over the ball when a simple tap-in to the far post would have seen the sides level. Borrello and Badolato both had snap shot opportunities immediately after a trio of touches from Milanovic, Sapsford and Borrello ended with dual shots blocked off the line. Adelaide should have gone down to 10 men not long after the half-time resumption but Shaun Evans made a classic "home ref" call and instead of sending off Zac Clough for his late studs up lunging challenge that smashed Badolato in the knee Clough got away with a yellow. With the team lacking impetus Alen Stajcic went to his bench to introduce Kraev for his Wanderers debut and Marcus Antonsson up front, with Zac Sapsford & Badolato making way. The injection off the bench did the job for the Wanderers and they levelled in the 67th minute through Milanovic when Antonsson rose to meet a Clisby cross and in the 50/50 challenge he knocked it down for Milanovic to blast it with his right foot past Delianov. Pantazopoulos' good game ended with an apparent knee injury, he limped off the pitch to be replaced by Tom Beadling. Adelaide took advantage of Johnny Yull's pace as he beat Alex Bonetig around the outside but his cutback was blocked away by the defender, who caused a panic in the defence with an awful short range backpass that was intercepted by Adelaide, turned into a blocked shot that looped agonising toward goal only to be cleared off the line. In the 93rd minute Adelaide looked certain to score a winner to send them through, another right flank raid ended with Yull having to stretch out and that cost him the power to get it past the keeper. Off the rebounding play there was a desperation block to send it out for a corner. Aidan Simmons was inserted in the final seconds and he helped fend off the final attack of the game from the corner. The not so final whistle heralded full time and a short break before the 30 minutes of extra-time, with Borrello leaving the pitch with Ayden Hammond coming on in his place. It took Adelaide all of 2 minutes to get back in front. Simmons was beaten for pace and then bullied out of the challenge by Ryan Kitto & before the cover defence could come across he blasted a left foot strike from point blank range that Vidackovic got a hand to but couldn't keep out. Antonsson had a chance to reply from 8 yards out only to fire the ball over the goal and into the kids playing behind the ground. Milanovic should have equalised in the 2nd half of extra time when Simmons was released down the right and found Milanovic unmarked inside the area, but instead of finding the back of the net the striker could do nothing more than shoot it straight into the chest of Delianov. There were big appeals for a handball from the Wanderers in the 111th minute, replays showing it clearly come off the hand of Clough as he missed a clearing header inside the penalty area. Awan Lual was thrown on for the final 3 minutes with Priestman taking leave, but he couldn't do anything to make an impact. Adelaide repelled the last chance of the game where the Wanderers threw the kitchen sink from a corner but the delivery was poor and ended with a goal kick. The last kick of the game summed it up, with Jack Clisby needing a good final delivery into the box in the 123rd minute, but instead kicking it straight to Delianov. The game was won and lost on the technical ineptitude displayed across the park, with strikers who either shot well wide or over or straight at the keeper, an absent midfield constantly being bypassed by aimless long balls while Adelaide showed purpose and determination and the touch of brilliance to get them over the line. It marks the end of another failed cup run & the first failure of the Stajcic era at the Wanderers. He now has a little over 5 weeks to prepare the side for the Round 1 Sydney Derby. Hopefully that is enough time to gel all the new signings and embed Mata into the squad or this new A-League season might be over the week it begins. The Wanderers next match is against Sydney FC at Parramatta on Saturday the 19th of October with kick-off at 7:35pm.