A-League wrap: Melbourne sides settle for draws

An injury-time goal from Sydney striker Juho Makela salvaged a 1-1 draw against Melbourne Victory in the A-League on Saturday.

Victory went ahead on 52 minutes through Danny Allsopp and looked certain of maximum points before Makela’s second goal in as many games kept Sydney’s faint finals hopes alive.

In front of the second-highest crowd at the Sydney Football Stadium this season (11,387), the home side came out firing with a dominant first half in which they shot 16 times on Melbourne’s goal.

Sydney’s best chance came on the half-hour mark when Scott Jamieson fired a cross into the box that Bruno Cazarine headed towards goal from almost point-blank range.

But Melbourne keeper Michael Petkovic stuck a leg out to block what seemed a certain goal.

Despite their early domination, Sydney found themselves behind six minutes after the break when Carlos Hernandez struck a beautiful pass from the wing into the path of Allsopp, who struck a first-time shot towards the Sydney goal.

Moriyasu did well to block Allsopp’s shot but a deflection saw the ball loop over Liam Reddy’s hands and into the net to give Melbourne a surprise lead.

In the final 10 minutes, the Blues resurrected their first-half dominance and got their reward in the last minute of injury time when Nicky Carle passed the ball to an unmarked Makela who side-footed an easy finish into the back of the net to snatch a draw.

In Saturday’s other clash, Alex Terra scored one of the goals of the season as Melbourne Heart escaped with a 1-1 draw with Perth Glory.

The Glory took the lead after 34 minutes through Todd Howarth before Terra’s spectacular bicycle kick seven minutes later handed Heart a share of the spoils.