The Weekly Times - 28th February, 2018

14 THE WEEKLY TIMES Wednesday 28 February, 2018
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Polished Pole Adrian pounces
in Sky Blues’ 3-1 derby win
SYDNEY FC were at their clinical best in the last Sydney derby with Western Sydney
Wanderers to be played at Allianz Stadium.
Despite nine total shots
compared to the Sky Blues’
eight, Western Sydney
Wanderers couldn’t capitalise
on their chances, losing
last Sunday’s encounter
3-1.
“Everyone thinks they
(WSW) will be competitive
but at the end of the
day, the stats don’t lie it’s
a pretty lopsided derby,
the most lopsided out of all
the derbies. In 14 games,
we’ve lost one,” Sydney
FC’s head coach Graham
Arnold said.
“You go down one nil and
there’s no panic. It’s like the
players think we’ve been
here before and we know
we’ll get three or four.
“We’re better than them.
It’s simple.”
The Sky Blues showed
why they take their foreign
scouting so seriously.
Brailian Bob bagged
one goal and Poland international
Adrian Mierejewski,
two, confirming Sydney
FC’s impressive comeback
win with a clinical display in
front of goals.
The pair has now scored
an impressive 33 goals between
them in a total of 53
for the team. The Wanderers
will rue giving away the
foul for the Pole’s moment
of magic from a set piece
just minutes before the half
time break.
Mierejewski weighed up
his options before lifting the
ball cleanly over the tightly
packed Wanderers wall and
off the crossbar, into the
bottom of the net.
Eleven minutes into the
second half, Ninkovic fired
the ball into the box from a
wide position, the Wanderers
failed to clear and the
loose ball was retrieved by
Matt Simon before slipping
it to the Pole who fired a
low shot into the net.
Cue another “muscles”
celebration.
Ninkovic was in the thick
of it again in the 73rd minute,
bursting through and
laying off an exquisite assist
for Bob, who curled a
low ball past ex-Sydney FC
keeper Vedran Janjetovic.
After the game, Mierejewski
brushed aside talk of
fatigue from the mid-week
two-all AFC Champions
League draw with Shanghai
Shenhua in China, after
his two-goal starring display
at Allianz.
”I read some news maybe
we’d be tired, this and that,
but we were ready physically
to play two maybe
three games in a row,” he
said.
”We have 20 players
ready to play. So we ticked
that box and we are waiting
for the next game.
”It was a good game, the
weather wasn’t perfect. For
us, it was good we were
in China and there we had
four days of rain.”
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