Hellas of way for City to exit Cup
GOLD Coast City’s dreams of a first semi-final appearance in the Westfield FFA Cup were smashed by an impressive South Melbourne last night.
NPL Victoria club South Melbourne downed City 6-0 at Cbus Super Stadium in a quarter-final and will advance to the semi-finals.
The Hellas were the team City, then playing as Palm Beach Sharks, beat in an 8-7 penalty shootout at Cbus Super Stadium in 2015, so revenge was sweet for the powerful Melbourne club.
They were never really in doubt and dominated the scoring opportunities.
City were off to the worst possible start, going down 1-0 only 90 seconds into the clash, then 2-0 down after seven minutes as South prised their defence wide open.
Clever South playmaker Nicholas Epifano sent through a neat ball to the club’s leading scorer in the NPL Victoria, an unmarked Milos Lujic on the left side, for the first.
The second came from a horrible mix-up in the City defence when Matthew Millar was left alone in the penalty box for an easy side-foot finish.
South went 3-0 up in the 37th minute when Marcus Schroen crossed to Jesse Daley, way out on his own, and he had no trouble beating City keeper Matt Stein.
It took only seven minutes for South Melbourne to go 4-0 up when Lujic netted his second goal, driving another nail into City’s coffin.
Then came a horrendous error when City keeper Matt Stein copped a terrible back pass from Matt Schmidt in the penalty area and bounced off his chest and into the path of Millar for his second.
Both sides went into the tie without key players.
Big City striker Sam Smith was missing with knee issues sustained in the NPLQ semifinal loss to Western Pride while South Melbourne were minus their injured captain Bradley Norton.
The Gold Coasters are the only club to have made it to the Cup quarter-finals in the four years of the competition.