Alessandro Del Piero conjures up late winner for Sydney FC
Italian maestro Alessandro Del Piero conjured up the assist as Sydney FC scored a stoppage-time winner to climb off the floor of Australia's A-League standings on Sunday.
- Agence France-Presse
- Updated: January 13, 2013 03:46 PM IST
Italian maestro Alessandro Del Piero conjured up the assist as Sydney FC scored a stoppage-time winner to climb off the floor of Australia's A-League standings on Sunday.
Del Piero's cross found an unmarked Rhyan Grant inside the penalty box. He headed home in the third minute of stoppage time to give struggling Sydney FC a 2-1 win over Melbourne Heart at home.
Sydney climbed one spot to ninth in the 10-team competition following the last-gasp winner after the home side trailed with five minutes of normal time remaining.
Australian international Brett Emerton levelled the scores in the 85th minute, setting up a grandstand finish as Sydney threw everything at the Heart defence to nab the late winner.
Central Coast Mariners had coach Graham Arnold sent off as they rallied Saturday for a 1-1 draw with Melbourne Victory, to lie two points ahead of Adelaide United after 16 rounds.
Arnold was banished to the stands by the referee just before halftime for what appeared to be comments directed at match officials.
Victory failed to convert several chances into anything more than Marcos Flores' 42nd-minute goal. They paid the price when the Mariners equalised through a Daniel McBreen penalty with 13 minutes left.
Adelaide United's Argentine star Jeronimo Neumann scored twice in a 3-2 victory against Perth Glory on Friday.
Neumann came off the bench when Adelaide frontman Bruce Djite limped off after injuring a groin muscle just 80 seconds into the home fixture.
Western Sydney Wanderers consolidated fourth place with a 2-0 win over Wellington Phoenix in New Zealand on Sunday, with late goals from defender Nikolai Topor-Stanley and striker Labinot Haliti.
A Ryan Griffiths goal ensured Newcastle a 1-0 win over an underperforming Brisbane and lifted them back into the top six on Saturday.