A disallowed Western Sydney goal has helped Melbourne City scrape a 2-2 draw with Western Sydney to keep their faint A-League Men premiership hopes alive.
With scores level at 2-2, Wanderers substitute Marcus Antonsson found the back of the net at CommBank Stadium with a header deep into added time on Saturday.
But his goal was chalked off after VAR found Anthony Pantazopoulos was offside.
City needed to defeat the Wanderers to stay within reach of the premiership plate after league leaders Auckland defeated Melbourne Victory earlier on Saturday.
A draw mathematically keeps Aurelio Vidmar’s side in the premiers plate race, but their chances remain slim given Auckland have a superior goal difference (+23 to City’s +12).
The Black Knights lead the league with 50 points, with City on 44 points ahead of the final two games of the home-and-away season.
Western Sydney fumbled their chance to close in on a home elimination final, remaining fourth on 40 points.
A Nicolas Milanovic special had put Western Sydney in pole position to spoil City’s party.
The 23-year-old opened the scoring in the ninth minute from the tightest of angles after Gabriel Cleur outmuscled Socceroos left-back Aziz Behich.
Milanovic popped up again four minutes later, dancing around defender Kai Trewin and Behich to find the back of the net.
The score was marked down as a City own goal after the ball was found to have deflected off Trewin’s foot.
Trewin found redemption by pulling one back with a 36th-minute header after a Marco Tilio corner kick, before coolly converting a penalty in the 86th minute to level the scores.
The visitors had earned the penalty after Pantazopoulos downed Medin Memeti in the box in the 84th minute.
Milanovic goes to equal-second in the league’s Golden Boot standings alongside Sydney FC star Adrian Segecic (12 goals), one goal behind Adelaide United’s Archie Goodwin.
https://thewest.com.au/sport/soccer/city-scrape-draw-with-wanderers-after-disallowed-goal-c-18426186
