MONTREAL – CF Montreal was playing its second game at Saputo Stadium in Montreal against an Atlanta team looking to get back into the playoff race.
CF Montreal blows another lead but salvages draw with Atlanta
A tight first half :
In the first 10 minutes of the game, we didn’t see any big opportunities but it was the visitors who started attacking in the 11th minute and it was Marcelino Moreno with the first scoring chances of the game but was denied by James Pantemis the Montreal keeper.
Four minutes later Victor Wanyama with a great through pass to Mason Toye and this time it was Brad Guzan making the save on the Montreal striker to keep the score at 0-0 and a minute later George Bello found himself one on one with Pantemis but he would make another amazing save.
That was as close as each team would get and both teams went into halftime with the score level at 0 and the game was heading into a crucial second half.
A rough second half :
Montreal finally opened the scoring in the 52nd minute when Mason Toye got a great feed from Joaquin Torres and managed to beat the Atlanta keeper Guzan for the 1-0 lead and 10 minutes later they would double their lead off a corner and a set-piece when Rudy Camacho would kick the ball into the back of the net to make it 2-0 for the home side.
It didn’t take long for Atlanta to respond as off the ensuing play Josef Martinez got a great pass and finally beat Pantemis to cut Montreal lead to 2-1. Djorde Mihailovic though he scored when he managed to get in on Guzan but only managed to hit the post a couple of minutes later.
On the other side of the field, Martinez thought he had tied the game when he tried to head a ball in but the ball would sail wide and he would get another opportunity to tie the game in the 73rd minute when he was taken down in the box by Camacho who was shown a red and the referee David Ganter pointed to the spot for a penalty kick.
Moreno would step up to the spot and buried it to make it a 2-2 game and just like that Montreal again would blow a 2-0 lead and in the 79th-minute things got ugly as Wanyama and Martinez were seen fighting in the Montreal net and both were shown yellow cards before Gantar decided to look at VAR for a possible red.
Both players ended up getting ejected from the game and just like that, it was 10 against 9 with a little more than 10 minutes to go and in the 88th minute with one final push Zachary Brault Guillard made a run from his own 18-yard line all the way to the box and a got a great shot off that rang right off the crossbar.
That’s as close as Montreal would get as seven minutes were added on to the 90 and Pantemis made some brilliant saves in the 95th minute but the final whistle blew and Montreal managed to earn a draw.
Montreal will have to get over this result fairly quickly as they are off to DC on Sunday to face off against DC United.
