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CF Montreal lose home opener to Philadelphia after second half comeback

CF Montreal lose as the Philadelphia Union celebrates their win at Olympic Stadium

MONTREAL, QC – CF Montreal lose home opener after the Philadelphia Union pulled off a second-half comeback to take the win.

CF Montreal lose their home opener against Philadelphia

Montreal starts slow but finishes strong

The first couple minutes of the game was intense with both teams looking for the opening chance to score and Montreal was doing a good job winning the battles and controlling the possession early on. Montreal earned a corner in the eighth minute but it was headed right into the hands of the Philadelphia keeper Andre Blake.

Joaquin Torres got Montreal’s first shot on target in the 12-minute but again Blake was there to make the save as the ball went right into his chest. Sebastien Breza was put into action two minutes later when he made a great save on Julian Carranza with a great dive as the ball went off his fingertips.

Three minutes later off a bad turnover, Breza was forced to make another save on Carranza again to keep it level at zero and Philadelphia continued to put relentless pressure once again and had another chance to score but was denied again by the Montreal keeper.

Montreal opened the scoring in the 32-minute when Lassi Lappalainen managed to get a great lob shot off which went over the defender and the keeper and into the back of the net for the 1-0 lead. Montreal earned a corner in the 45-minute but it was punched away by Blake.

The first half finished after two minutes of time were added and Montreal went back to the locker room up 1-0 and looking to get their first win of the season.

Montreal falters in the second half

Four minutes into the second half Djorde Mihaloivc thought he doubled Montreal’s lead with a great run and powered a great shot past Blake into the back of the net but upon further review, VAR determined there was a foul in the middle of the field and the goal was disallowed.

In the 52-minute, the Union tied the game when Alejandro Bedoya managed to get a quick shot that went past Breza and was also reviewed but VAR deemed it a good goal. Three minutes later Philadelphia took the lead when Daniel Gazdag got a great pass and managed to beat Breza.

In the 65-minute, Wilfried Nancy made two changes bringing in Zachary Brault Guillard and Rida Zouhir for Ismael Kone and Mathieu Choiniere. Four minutes later Lappalainen had another great chance to score but Blake was able to make a diving save to keep the ball out.

Philadelphia was reduced to 10 men in the 70-minute when Carranza got shown a yellow card his second for studs up and was shown a red card. In the 80-minute, Montreal made a change bringing in Zorhan Bassong for Kamal Miller. Breza made a huge save in the 89th minute when Philadelphia found themselves on a two-on-one.

Montreal made a final change in added time bringing in Matko Miljevic for Lassi Lappalinen but it wasn’t enough as the final whistle blew after six minutes.

Coach reaction

“It’s a fact the first half was good but I don’t think physically we crashed and if you look at the first game against Orlando we conceded the goal but kept going and we had opportunities to score and yes today we also conceded the goal so I will try to analyze that and we will see”.

CF Montreal will now focus its attention on the first leg of the 2022 Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League. They will travel to Mexico City to face Cruz Azul in the first leg on Wednesday night at the Estadio Azteca. The game will take place at 10:00 p.m. ET and will be shown live on OneSoccer.

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