Rafa Lea’i scores a hat-trick as Central Coast FC beats Galaxy FC 3-2 in extra time to reach the OFC Champions League Final.
A hat-trick from Rafa Lea’i sent Central Coast FC into the OFC Champions League Final with a heart-stopping, pulsating 3-2 extra-time victory over Galaxy FC in a semi-final match for the ages at Four R Govind Park Stadium in Ba.
After a rip-roaring start in which both teams went out at a fast pace, attacking from the outset, it was Central Coast FC who took the lead on the quarter-hour mark, putting Galaxy FC behind for the first time in the tournament.
A long ball found Hudyn Irodao on the right-hand side of the penalty area and his touch and shot was too much for Michael Laulae in the Galaxy FC goal. The effort cannoned back off the bar and, after Bobby Leslie saw his header blocked, the loose ball was controlled and smashed home by Rafa Lea’i.
With Lea’i pulling the strings with touches of impudent class, Central Coast FC continued to push, and Barrie Limoki saw a long-range thunderbolt rattle the woodwork before the same player was thwarted by an excellent stop from Laulae.
The Solomon Islands stars were keeping nine-goal tournament top-scorer Willian Dos Santos Medina quiet, nullifying the threat posed by the ace Brazilian marksman, throttling the Galaxy FC midfield supply line orchestrated by skipper Roberson Dos Santos Ribiero.
Galaxy FC wasted a glorious chance when Tasso Jeffrey headed over from inside the six-yard box and they were made to pay a minute before the half-time break. Leslie and Limoki combined on a slick counterattack to set-up Lea’i who confidently drilled home his second of the match.
As expected of the top scorers in this season’s tournament, Galaxy FC came out firing in the second half with Dos Santos Media denied by a good save from Erick Wanega, who also repelled a header from Aengari Gagame, scooping the ball clear from inside his six-yard box.
Medina then spurned a presentable chance to reduce the arrears, skewing wide from the top of the six-yard area as the team from Vanuatu upped the ante, the same player then seeing a header kept out by Wanega who was suddenly coming under increasing pressure.
Galaxy FC’s Brazilian hit man was not to be denied though and pulled his team back into the game with his tenth of the competition with just over twenty minutes remaining. Andrew Malakai found Dos Santos Medina with a neat pass and the striker spun, ran at the defence, and curled home a superb goal.
And it was Dos Santos Medina who drew his team on terms eight minutes later. Controlling a pass, and breaking the Central Coast FC offside trap, he coolly slotted home yet another predatory finish to take the tie to extra-time.
Both teams created openings in the extra half-an-hour, Leslie having gone closest for Central Coast FC while the ubiquitous Dos Santos Medina was an ever-present penalty box threat for Galaxy FC.
But it was Central Coast who found the critical breakthrough with three minutes remaining through that man Lea’i. Substitute Fordney Junior capitlised on a slip at the back by Galaxy FC to feed a precise ball to Lea’i and the Solomon Islands international thrashed a crunching finish high into the net to seal a place in the Final.
OFC PRESS RELEASE
