Central coast mariners 2-1 guizhou renhe

Trent Sainsbury’s first goal for Central Coast Mariners with nine minutes remaining secured the A-League outfit just a second victory in the AFC Champions League as Wednesday’s 2-1 win over China’s Guizhou Renhe kept Graham Arnold’s side firmly in the knockout phase picture in Group H.Pedj Bojic had given the Mariners the lead in spectacular fashion just after half-time at Central Coast Stadium only for an unfortunate own goal from goalkeeper Mat Ryan to hand tournament debutants Guizhou their first goal in the AFC Champions League.But after the Mariners posted their first AFC Champions League win over Chinese opposition with a 5-1 victory over Tianjin Teda last season, Sainsbury headed home Michael McGlinchey’s cross to hand Arnold’s side a timely first win of their third continental campaign ahead of next week’s return fixture in China. “It was a good performance, although we made it hard for ourselves,” said Mariners coach Arnold.“In international football you don’t get many chances to score, when you get the chances you have to score the goals and take those chances. You can really get hurt badly if you don’t capitalise on your advantage and we didn’t do that, but fortunatly we got the second goal. When it was 1-1 we had to go for it and we opened up quite a bit as three points was a must.”The visitors started brightly, although despite a determined start from Guizhou’s Australian defender Jonas Salley, it was Central Coast who created the first real chance after 15 minutes as Mile Sterjovski flashed an angled effort just wide of the upright.Guizhou though, were presented with a glorious chance to open the scoring 13 minutes before half-time as Yu Hai’s slide-rule pass split the Mariners defence, but after beating the offside trap, Zlatan Muslimovic was unable to convert with Ryan quickly off his line to intervene.But with the home side starting to dominate proceedings more as the half progressed the Mariners also came close to a breakthrough before half-time as McGlinchey headed wide from just outside the six-yard area following a strong run and cross from Bernie Ibini-Isei.That pressure continued at the start of the second half and the Mariners though, were indebted to goalkeeper Ryan for preserving the lead just three minutes later as the Australia intentional produced a superb double save by first pushing Zvjezdan Misimovic’s shot onto the crossbar before recovering to deny Muslimovic as the striker pounced on the rebound.Central Coast almost took full advantage before the hour mark as Guizhou goalkeeper Zhang Lie produced a double save of his own to deny Ibini-Isei and McGlinchey before Daniel McBreen blazed over from inside the six-yard area with the goal at his mercy.And the Mariners were made to pay with 19 minutes remaining as the visitors equalised in fortunate circumstances as Misimovic’s free-kick skipped off the head of Joshua Rose and after coming back off the foot of the post, rebounded off Ryan and into the net.But 10 minutes later the Mariners regained their lead as McGlinchey’s inviting right wing cross found the onrushing Sainsbury at the back post and the midfielder made no mistake with a close range header to hand Guizhou a second defeat of their maiden AFC Champions League campaign. source : QNA