‘Thank you’ tie ends in Phoenix draw with Wanderers and fractious ending
Bozhidar Kraev picked up where he left off before the World Cup break, scoring for the third game in a row as Wellington Phoenix marked their A-League Men return with a spicy 1-1 draw with Western Sydney Wanderers.
The Bulgarian midfielder took his season goal tally to four after getting his head on the end of a pinpoint cross from Clayton Lewis to open the scoring in the 60th minute.
But the Phoenix were unable to hold onto their lead. Kraev’s goal was cancelled out by Yeni Ngbakoto 19 minutes later after the Wanderers forward’s freekick from deep was allowed to bounce in the box and evaded everyone, including Phoenix goalkeeper Oli Sail.
The Phoenix took the round seven fixture against the secondplace Wanderers to Wollongong as a thank you for hosting them when the pandemic forced them to be away from New Zealand for the best part of two seasons. That resulted in a unique situation where WIN Stadium was packed with boisterous opposition fans, who let a flare off during the encounter, and barely any supporting the Phoenix.
Phoenix coach Ufuk Talay was satisfied to walk away from a point from their home-awayfrom-home game, and said he was delighted to see Kraev continue his promising start to life in the A-League.
‘‘BK [Kraev] has had a good start the season, he’s scoring goals and does the hard work without the ball as well and he really understands what we expect of him in the position he play, so we hope he can continue in the same way,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s our home game but is it really a home game? Not really. But we’ll take the point from the restart of the season and we’ll look at the game, review it and try and move on.’’
Tempers flared after the final whistle with players from both teams needing to be separated following an argument between their respective skippers, Sail and Marcelo.
The result lifted the Phoenix back into the top six.
Big moment
The Phoenix were denied a firsthalf goal when Lawrence pulled off a stunning reaction save, sticking his glove up to hook away Wootton’s on-target header.
Player of the day
Phoenix coach Ufuk Talay has a great track record when it comes to scouting foreign talent and Kraev looks to be the latest gem. His height makes him a great target.
Big picture
The Phoenix will be buoyed by the goal-scoring form of Bulgarian import Kraev as they return to Wellington for a true home game against Adelaide United next Saturday.