Sydney hold Gers to Draw in Rain

In torrential rain, Sydney FC of the Australian A-League battled hard to draw 0-0 with the SPL Champions this morning in the second game of the Sydney Festival of Football.

After a 2-1 win over Blackburn, Smith made 2 changes to the starting line-up with Madjid Bougherra and Allan McGregor being replaced by Steven Whittaker and Neil Alexander respectively. To be honest, it was a very dull game of football which wasn’t helped by the heavy pitch which was swamped in the heavy rain. The opening 20 minutes saw the Australians dominate fully with 75-25% possession in their favour. Despite the lack of chances, the Rangers and Sydney fans seemed to have an excellent time producing a good atmosphere.

It took a while for the chances to come, but Sydney’s tidy and short passing game was working well. Mark Bridge had a half-chance when he snatched at a shot inside the box but Alexander easily collected. Rangers striker Kyle Lafferty also had a shot saved, but he burst into life when he went on a rampaging run from the left-side beating four men before his over-weighted pass took the momentum out the move.

In the second half, Rangers looked much more adapted to the conditions and their best chance came when Maurice Edu powered a header back across goal from a Steven Davis free-kick and the Sydney keeper Reddy parried clear. Edu had another good chance, again from a header, thanks to Steven Whittaker’s cross but Reddy saved well. Jordan McMillan, Andrew Little and John Fleck all had a substitute appearance in the second-half replacing McCulloch, Lafferty and Miller.

The Gers are back in action at the weekend against AEK Athens and would need to finish with a flourish in order to win the competition after the Greeks won 2-1 against Blackburn Rovers earlier.