The Wellington Phoenix have left it late to secure a place in the last eight of the Hahn Australia Cup.
Phoenix forward Hideki Ishige has headed home a corner in the 94th minute to see off Nunawading City 1-0 in their round of 16 tie at Nasiol Stadium in Melbourne.
Nunawading had frustrated the Nix for large periods, particularly in the first half, and their goalkeeper made some sharp saves to keep Wellington scoreless until second half stoppage time.
The Phoenix’s substitutes all made an impact with recent arrival Carlo Armiento providing the pinpoint delivery for Ishige’s match-winner.
Head coach Giancarlo Italiano was happy with the team’s second half performance.
“I thought that we showed a lot more discipline and intent to go forward,” Italiano said post-match.
“I thought the first half was very disappointing in terms of executing our gameplan. The pitch didn’t help. It’s not an excuse because they had to play on it as well, and credit to them they defended very well.
“I thought their goalkeeper did exceptionally well, especially in that second half, but I think with the amount of chances we made in that second half we should have won the game by a couple more.
“I never felt at all in that game that they were going to score. It was just a matter of when we were going to score and finish the game.
“I’m not really fazed about the fact that we had wait until the 94th minute. I was buoyed by the fact that in the second half I got the response that I wanted.
“I thought Paulo Retre was exceptional when he played at centre back, I thought (Ifeanyi) Eze coming on was very good, I thought Luke Supyk did exceptionally well and I think it was just positive subs with Carlo coming on as well, giving us more attacking intent on the left.”
The Nix now await the winner of Tuesday night’s round of 16 match between Heidelberg United and Western Sydney Wanderers in the quarter-finals, which will be played later this month.
“Every game in this competition is valuable in terms of setting us up for the season.
“Now we are two games away from a final so we’re going to give it everything we can in order to get there.”
Giancarlo Italiano made two changes to the XI which started the round of 32 win over Perth Glory, with 17-year-old goalkeeper Eamonn McCarron and All Whites fullback Tim Payne coming into the side in place of Josh Oluwayemi and Jayden Smith respectively. New signings Ifeanyi Eze and Carlo Armiento were named amongst the substitutes.
Ishige had the first shot just two and a half minutes into the match when he won the ball on the edge of the Nunawading box, but he wasn’t able to test their ‘keeper Dennys Martin.
In fact McCarron was the busier of the two goalkeepers in the first half, with the hosts registering two shots on target.
Italiano made his first substitution at halftime, bringing on experienced midfielder Paulo Retre on as the right-sided centre back in place of Payne.
The Phoenix made a bright start with young forward Gabriel Sloane-Rodrigues dragging a shot narrowly wide just 60 seconds into the second half.
Sloane-Rodrigues forced a good save from Martin a dozen minutes later as the Nix started to look more dangerous in the final third.
Luke Brooke-Smith headed over the bar shortly after the hour mark before being replaced by Luke Supyk, while Armiento came on for his club debut in place of Lukas Kelly-Heald.
Supyk dragged a shot wide 10 minutes after his introduction as Ishige sent a dangerous ball into the Nunawading penalty area.
Armiento almost scored directly from a right-wing corner in the 81st minute, with Nuna doing well to clear his effort off the line.
Dennys Martin made a couple of great saves soon after to deny a couple of Nix defenders. The first was to keep out a long-range shot from Matt Sheridan and the second was to tip an Isaac Hughes header away from goal.
Eze replaced Sloane-Rodrigues in the 72nd minute and the Nigerian had a couple of attempts at goal in normal time, but neither was able to test Martin.
He did however make an incredible fingertip save to deny Eze a goal on debut in the third minute of stoppage time.
Moments later the Phoenix earned a right-wing corner, which Armiento delivered to the near post and Ishige headed home to win Wellington the match.
Wellington Phoenix: 40. Eamonn MCCARRON (gk), 5. Fin ROA CONCHIE, 6. Tim PAYNE (8. Paulo RETRE 46th), 9. Hideki ISHIGE, 15. Isaac HUGHES, 17. Gabriel SLOANE-RODRIGUES (7. Ifeanyi EZE 72nd), 18. Lukas KELLY-HEALD (11. Carlo ARMIENTO 62nd), 24. Xuan LOKE, 25. Kazuki NAGASAWA (c), 27. Matthew SHERIDAN, 29. Luke BROOKE-SMITH (23. Luke SUPYK 62nd).
Unused substitutes: 35. Matt FOORD (gk), 42. Fergus GILLION, 48. Mac MUNRO.
Nunawading City: 1. Dennys MARTIN (gk) (c), 2, Nicholas APOSTOLOPOULOS, 4. Fuki ISHIBASHI, 5. Andrew VISCIGLIO, 6. Luca SLAVICA, 9. Stuart EDGAR, 10. Denis DALURI 11. Alex KUBENKO, 14. Taira YOSHIMURA, 15. Haris HODZIC, 17. Felix DIMITRAKIS.
Unused substitutes: 26. Christian PAVLIDIS (gk), 3. Kane O’CONNOR, 8. Filippo GIOFFRE, 12. Carlos ABBOUD, 18. Christian CAVALLO, 21. Alexander DIMITRIOU, 23. James RIORDAN.
Goals:
9. Hideki ISHIGE (Wellington Phoenix) – 90+4
Cards:
6. Tim PAYNE (Wellington Phoenix) – yellow – 31st
