Gungahlin and Canberra Croatia share points at Deakin Stadium
Article: Lachlan Roberts
Photos: Mick Daniel Photography
Despite being down to 10-men, Canberra Croatia held on against Gungahlin United at a soaked Deakin Stadium on Sunday afternoon (26 July).
After a deluge of rain on Saturday night which caused the NPL1 clash between Tuggeranong United and Canberra Olympic to be postponed, the Match of the Round was given the go ahead after a pitch inspection by the match officials.
Both sides struggled early on, as they became accustomed to the wet pitch but it was United who settled first, with new recruit Philippe Bernabo-Madrid looking lively.
Canberra Croatia had the best chance to open the scoring after Nikolaos Kalfas rounded the keeper but his shot was sensationally saved off the line by United's captain Jack Green.
It looked like Bernabo-Madrid's afternoon would be over within 20 minutes when he went down with a lower leg complaint, but he returned to the field and grabbed the opener just seven minutes later.
After Croatia had turned the ball over in defence, Bernabo-Madrid toepoked the ball home against his old club in front of parochial home crowd.
Despite shouts for handball down the other end, Canberra Croatia levelled the scores with 30 minutes remaining when Domenic Giampaolo converted a penalty for a handball against Jeremy Habtemariam.
In the 68th minute, Kalfas was sent off for his second yellow-card offence after he pulled back Jeremy Habtemariam after United pounced on the counter attack.
Despite being a man down, CCFC nearly pinched the lead but captain Ryan Keir missed a great chance, bending his left-foot strike around the wrong side of the post.
United had plenty of opportunities to grab the winner, as the ball cannoned off Bernabo-Madrid and onto the crossbar before Joshua Gulevski had a great chance to win it in injury time after a goalmouth scramble.
United coach Marcial Munoz believes his side deserved more than a point.
"Although it is a point, I thought that we deserved more from the game," he said. "However, football is a funny old game and we couldn't take advantage of the extra player on this occasion."
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