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Adelaide United have booked a rematch with Asian Champions League winners Gamba Osaka after a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Waitakere United at the Club World Cup in Tokyo.
United captain Travis Dodd scored the winner in the 82nd minute to save the A-League leaders’ blushes against their stubborn New Zealand opponents.
Waitakere took a shock lead through Paul Seaman in the 33rd minute before Daniel Mullen equalised with a header just before halftime.
“We knew it was going to be a very difficult game,” Adelaide coach Aurelio Vidmar told SBS after this win.
“They played very well, defended very well with numbers and got an early goal and that obviously made it a lot tougher for us.
“But we kept our composure and got the right result at the end.”
Adelaide will now meet Gamba in Sunday’s quarter final with the winner to take on European champions Manchester United in the semis on Thursday.
Adelaide dominated Waitakere throughout but a combination of some resolute defending by their semi-professional opponents and lack of precision prevented the Australians putting the match away until Dodd’s strike.
Paul Reid played a close-range freekick from the right to the near post, where Dodd darted between defenders and sent a glancing header inside the far post.
Waitakere had taken the lead in contentious circumstances midway through the first half.
Adelaide goalkeeper Eugene Galekovic reached up for a high ball, but was knocked to the ground in a collision with Seaman.
While the Adelaide defenders waited for a whistle for a foul on the keeper, Seaman spun onto the loose ball and shot into the empty net.
Adelaide equalised five minutes later, when Mullen was left unmarked at the back post and, with both feet planted, he directed a firm header into the back of the net.
J-League side Gamba scored a convincing 5-0 win over two legs when they and Adelaide met in last month’s ACL final and Vidmar said his side was looking forward to a chance at revenge.
“That will be nice, that’s what we wanted to do,” Vidmar said.
“We knew this was going to be extremely difficult so we wanted to get over this hurdle first and now we have a place in the quarter-finals which is fantastic.”
Manchester United and South American champions Liga de Quito received byes to the semi-finals stage and are heavily favoured to meet in the final at Yokohama International Stadium on December 21.
The next match will be Saturday’s quarter-final between Egypt’s Al Ahly, representing Africa, and Mexican club Pachuca, representing the CONCACAF region.
Vidmar said he hoped to have key men Cassio and Sasa Ognenovski (both virus) back for Sunday’s match and rated Diego (adductor strain) as a “50-50” chance of returning.
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