A-League Men: Semi-finals finely poised after opening-leg draws

Sydney FC coughed up a pb and had a precocious punishment outcry denied successful an entertaining 1-1 semi-final gully with Newcastle connected Saturday.

Sky Blues striker Apostolos Stamatelopoulos opened the scoring successful the 50th infinitesimal with a close-range header.

It was level pegging 8 minutes aboriginal when Eli Adams slammed 1 location for the Jets, but Ahmet Arslan thought helium had won a punishment successful the 87th infinitesimal when helium was barged implicit by Daniel Wilmering successful the box.

There was uncertainty astir whether Wilmering was shoulder-to-shoulder oregon slightly down Arslan.

Arslan threw his arms up successful despair aft the referee waved play on, with the infinitesimal proving to beryllium the past flashpoint of the pulsating match.

The 2nd limb will beryllium played successful Newcastle, where the Jets will beryllium aiming to snare a win successful beforehand of their location fans this Saturday night.

Newcastle, who are aiming for the treble this play aft winning the Australia Cup and finishing top of the ladder, were making their archetypal finals quality since losing the 2017/18 decider.

Sydney, already with 5 titles to their name, entered the lucifer connected the backmost of their 1-0 elimination last win implicit Melbourne Victory.

Only 5 Jets players had tasted A-League finals enactment earlier – and nary while playing for Newcastle.

In the different semi-final guardant Harry Crawford provided the magic touch to assistance Adelaide United salvage a 1-1 gully with hosts Auckland FC successful the archetypal limb of their semi-final tie.

On a damp Saturday, South Australian Lachie Brook opened the scoring for the location team when helium fired the shot into the bottommost near corner.

But Auckland FC mislaid their spark aft halftime, and United grabbed an equaliser aft Crawford poked a superb transverse from defender Yaya Dukuly past goalkeeper Michael Woud successful the 63rd minute.

The Reds will purpose to capitalise connected their location vantage successful the 2nd limb successful Adelaide adjacent Friday, with the winner to advancement to the expansive last against either Newcastle Jets of Sydney FC.

With AAP