Lachlan Brook opened the scoring in the 24th minute with a well taken goal and Auckland FC had several good chances to double their lead before halftime.<\/p>\n
But Adelaide were always a threat and managed an impressive goal to Harry Crawford, set up by the quicksilver Yaya Dakuly.<\/p>\n
Goalkeeper Michael Woud kept his team in the tie with a stunning early save, while Adelaide Juan Muniz hit the bar in added time.<\/p>\n
The home side were cruelly struck by injuries, losing key man Guillermo May in just after halftime, before central midfielder Cam Howieson departed a few minutes later.<\/p>\n
Auckland will take confidence from the performance \u2013 especially the first period \u2013 as they played some of the best attacking football of their season.<\/p>\n
But they will need to go to another level next week, at arguably the most intimidating venue in the A-League.<\/p>\n
After their narrow escape last week, Auckland FC looked on from the start, sharp and hungry. The passing was crisp, the movement confident and they were assertive on the ball.But Adelaide matched the energy and were dangerous, particularly in transition.<\/p>\n
Brook had an early chance \u2013 well blocked by a defender \u2013 before Woud came to the fore early. He flung himself to his left to push away a curling effort from Jonny Yull, before the save of the night, a quite unbelievable effort to deny Anselmo de Moraes from barely three metres. It was a key moment \u2013 as the crowd held their breath \u2013 and Woud somehow got in the way of the shot. The goalkeeper was in action again soon afterwards \u2013 alert to a long range effort \u2013 before Auckland grabbed a foothold.<\/p>\n
They pressed and hustled effectively, crosses zinged across and Randall got two shots away. Then came Brook\u2019s moment \u2013 against his former club \u2013 with an unerringly shot into the far corner, after Howieson couldn\u2019t connect with a cross. It was fine technique, under pressure, and celebrated wildly in front of the Port. Auckland FC enjoyed their best period from there; Brook seemed untouchable at times as he tip toed down the right sideline, while there was a succession of chances, though Adelaide held firm, helped by some well timed blocks.<\/p>\n
The crowd erupted when May scrambled the ball over the line late in the half, before the deflation as it was ruled out for a narrow offside.<\/p>\n
Calamity struck the home side early in the second half, as they lost two players in the space of six minutes. First May hurt his calf making a clearance, before Howieson was (accidentally) poked in the eye defending a corner. That meant Jake Girdwood-Reich moved into midfield, with Nando Pijnaker introduced along with Logan Rogerson.<\/p>\n
Adelaide took advantage of the reshuffles for their fine equaliser. Dukuly \u2013 who were a constant threat \u2013 outpaced Sakai to get to the byline \u2013 and his inch perfect cross was turned in at the far post by Crawford, who got there just ahead of Callan Elliott.<\/p>\n
The game, predictably got tighter, and Auckland couldn\u2019t manufacture the same chances, though Randall and Brook kept prompting.<\/p>\n
Francis de Vries made his long awaited return in the 79th minute, brought on with Liam Gillion, who added spark. There were some promising moments \u2013 but Adelaide remained resolute, while Gillion connected well to test Vriends.<\/p>\n
Muniz was unlucky \u2013 with a dipping shot from outside the area that hit the cross bar \u2013 which was the final big chance.<\/p>\n
Auckland 1 FC (Lachlan Brook 24\u2019)<\/p>\n
Adelaide United 1 (Harry Crawford 63\u2019)Halftime 1-0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lachlan Brook opened the scoring in the 24th minute with a well taken goal and Auckland FC had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9310,395,4878,4544,9320,9311,4545,9316,4868,9313,9319,9309,9317,1020,9315,9318,4688,9314,4686,9312],"class_list":{"0":"post-7958","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-adelaide","8":"tag-9310","9":"tag-adelaide","10":"tag-aleague","11":"tag-auckland","12":"tag-balance","13":"tag-by","14":"tag-fc","15":"tag-fcs","16":"tag-final","17":"tag-first","18":"tag-grand","19":"tag-held","20":"tag-hopes","21":"tag-in","22":"tag-leg","23":"tag-reaching","24":"tag-remain","25":"tag-semifinal","26":"tag-their","27":"tag-utd"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}