With six competitors away at the FUT Champions Cup in Singapore representing Australia, the substitute competitor took centre stage and stated their case for a starting spot in future rounds.
With six competitors away at the FUT Champions Cup in Singapore representing Australia, the substitute competitor took centre stage and stated their case for a starting spot in future rounds.
Catch up on all the action from Round 3 below!
Wellington Phoenix 7-8 Melbourne Victory
- The first game of the night went down to the wire as both sides fought hard for the three points.
Xbox: Justin “N8 JustManUtd” Josevski 6-4 Mouad “Mouad Zwed” Zwed
With both JustManUtd and Mouad Zwed unbeaten in the second E-League season, this fixture promised to be a tight affair.
The first leg certainly delivered with JustManUtd coming back with two late goals to claim a 3-3 draw. After dispossessing Zwed in the final third, Kylian Mbappe assisted Neymar with an uncontested finish inside the box, which left it all to play for in the second leg.
Early pressure from JustManUtd led to him being up 2-1 going into the second half, with goals from Ronaldo Nazario and Cristiano Ronaldo cancelling out a Keisuke Honda equaliser from Zwed. Unfortunately for JustManUtd, he couldn’t convert his chances throughout the second half, before scoring deep into injury time with Neymar to secure a 3-1 win.
PS4: Omar “oCenk_” 1-4 Sarge “Sarge_Fifa” Singh
What promised to be another close set of games didn’t seem likely after oCenk’s goalkeeper Edwin Van De Sar failed to collect a high ball, allowing Cristiano Ronaldo to back-heel the ball into the near post just five minutes into the game. From there, Sarge controlled a majority of the game, and didn’t allow oCenk to create clear opportunities and eventually went on to win 2-0 in the first leg.
The second leg started off in the same fashion as Sarge took a 1-0 lead in the 40th minute after Pele danced his way into the box, before sliding a pass into Cristiano Ronaldo for the opening goal. oCenk was then able to immediately reply with his own Cristiano Ronaldo goal, this time from a fortunate deflection inside the box. Sarge then secured what proved to be a crucial goal in the 55th minute as he secured the three points for the Victory.
Newcastle Jets 7-10 Melbourne City
- On the back of a substantial loss, the Newcastle Jets were looking to bounce back against a City side led by an in-form Saisanas.
Xbox: Liz “N8 Liz” Varley 4-3 Storm “Stormy Hazard” Noa
Coming off the back of a record-breaking defeat, Liz was hoping for a change of results as she faced City substitute Storm Noa.
Things didn’t look like they had gotten any better for Liz as she had an early penalty saved, before Storm countered and converted his chance down the other end. Storm then doubled his lead in the 20th minute before Liz came storming back into the game with two goals before the 60th minute. Storm then secured an early advantage with a goal in the 90th minute, making for an interesting second leg.
Liz got off to a great start in the second leg, only taking seven minutes to score her first goal, which came courtesy of Kylian Mbappe. She then doubled her lead in the 69th minute, as Pele slotted home a low driven shot just past the keeper securing a great personal victory for herself, despite still losing on aggregate.
PS4: Bohdan “BLFifa” Ling 3-7 Peter “Saisanas’ Saisanas
Season 1 veteran BLFifa made his Season 2 debut against a dominant Saisanas and proceedings didn’t get off to a great start as Pele converted in the 11th minute after a blocked shot fell kindly to him. BLFifa quickly equalised in the 15th minute before the two traded goals again as they headed to the half-time break at 2-2.
Saisanas then scored three more goals in the second half including a stunning overhead bicycle kick with Kylian Mbappe that was definitely worthy of a virtual Puskas award as he eventually went on to win 5-3 over BLFifa.
The second leg was much quieter, as Saisanas secured the aggregate win with goals either side of half-time as he won the second leg 2-0.
Adelaide United 7-10 Western Sydney Wanderers
- With both sides missing two of their three competitors, this fixture featured four legs between the remaining competitors.
Xbox/PS4: Rick “RickTran” Tran 7-10 Negede “Tyrone” Hunegnaw
With two of the four legs being played before the broadcast, Tyrone and Rick were tied at 3-3, after playing out a 3-3 draw in the first leg, before a 0-0 draw in the second leg, which is the first time in E-League history two competitors have been unable to score in a regular season fixture.
Tyrone opened the scoring in the 29th minute of the third leg when Cristiano Ronaldo slotted home a low driven shot from the top of the box, before he doubled the lead in the 43rd minute. Rick managed to get a goal back in the 67th minute, before Tyrone further extended his lead with two more goals to round out an impressive 4-1 win.
The final leg was yet another 3-3 draw as Rick looked to try claw back the deficit in the hopes of gaining the 3 points. Tyrone again opened the scoring in the 18th minute as Cristiano Ronaldo danced into the box. Rick then equalised and the two continued to trade goals as Tyrone finished off an impressive performance with a 90th minute equaliser to secure the three points with a 3-3 draw.
Perth Glory 5-6 Brisbane Roar
- A thrilling set of matches concluded with late drama as the unbeaten Brisbane looked to continue their start against a resilient Perth Glory side.
Xbox: David “N8 Highfly” Cook 5-1 Andy “AKP0” Phanouvong
Highfly came into this match on the back of a strong, gutsy performance against City’s Marcus Gomes and looked to continue his form against Brisbane’s Akp0.
The first leg was all Highfly’s as he secured a dominant 4-0 victory. Scoring opened in the 20th minute when Cristiano Ronaldo found Eusebio breaking in behind the defence before slotting it past the keeper with a first time shot. Two more goals followed in the second half, before the dominant victory was capped off in the 78th minute with Eusebio finishing off another lovely passing move.
Akp0 looked to have turned his fortunes around with an early goal in the 11th minute of the second leg before Highfly equalised in the 25th minute. There were to be no more goals in the rest of the leg, but it set up an interesting finish on the PS4.
PS4: Adrian “StridentCorn” Klein 5-0 Dylan “AussieFIFAHD” Banks
Unbeaten throughout the season, AussieFIFA came into this match as the heavy favourite having dispatched Western Sydney’s N8 Jaz 8-2 the week before. Meanwhile StridentCorn looked to try and turn his poor start around.
Like the Xbox fixtures, this match-up was also one-sided, but it was the turn of Brisbane to be on the winning end as AussieFIFA scored three goals to capture a 3-0 first leg win. It took 40 minutes for the scoring to open, before Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann added to the scoresheet in the second half.
The second leg was also controlled by AussieFIFA, as we only had to wait until the 30th minute for the scoring to open as Dennis Bergkamp slipped past two defenders before finishing into the bottom corner. The second goal of the match, and what eventually became the winner for Brisbane, came in the 86thminute as Ronaldo Nazario finished into the top left hand corner to capture all three points for Brisbane.
Sydney FC 5-12 Central Coast Mariners
- The final match-up of the night saw defending premiers Sydney FC take on a winless Central Coast Mariners side looking for their first win of the season.
Xbox: Necat “NFamous_Shadow8” Gorgec 3-7 Kiran “KyrenFIFA” Gupta
The final Xbox game of the night saw KyrenFIFA take on NFamous_Shadow with the Mariners representative putting on a strong performance to claim his side the three points.
A bizarre goal kicked off proceedings in the first leg, as three players contested for the ball with Raphael Varane seemingly managing to score with his head whilst on the ground in the 28th minute. Kyren then managed to extend his lead with two more goals after the break, with Shadow grabbing what would be a consolation goal.
In a much more orthodox fashion, Nfamous managed to open the scoring in the second leg through Cristiano Ronaldo in the 13th minute after he cut inside and finished with his left foot past the keeper. Kyren then equalised shortly after before both competitors added another goal each to leave the game poised evenly at 2-2. Once the second half kicked off, Kyren again asserted his first leg dominance and scored an additional two goals to secure a 4-2 aggregate win.
PS4: Jesse “JesseD1996” Da Silva 5-2 Joshua “Joshawaa” Gresham
Filling in for FUTWIZ Marko, Joshawaa looked comfortable as he faced Central Coast’s JesseD, who returned after missing the previous week.
In a tight first legged affair, both sides failed to open the scoring early on, with the first goal not coming until the 81st minute with Joshawaa managing to score a well worked Cristiano Ronaldo chance. It only took five minutes for JesseD to equalise through his own Cristiano Ronaldo which left it until the final game of the night to decide a winner.
The second leg went much differently in terms of the scoreline, but the scoring started in a similar fashion. JesseD opened the scoring through Eusebio in the 10th minute, before Joshawaa replied with an equaliser three minutes later courtesy of Ronaldo Nazario. But from then on it was all JesseD as he retook the lead with Cristiano Ronaldo just before the half hour mark, before adding a third and fourth goal in the second half, with Johann Cruyff topping off a wonderful performance and the collecting all three points for the Mariners.
