Central Coast Mariners were headed for an important nil-nil draw against FC Seoul on Wednesday night in the Champions League's Match Day 5. Instead, a John Hutchinson own-goal in injury time gave the Korean visitors an 1-0 win at Central Coast Stadium and dropped the Mariners back from first place to last in Group F. Combined with Sanfrecce Hiroshima's late comeback at Beijing Guoan in the group's other game on Wednesday, Central Coast will need a victory in Japan next week in order to guarantee advancement to the Round of 16 for a second consecutive season.
Prior to Match Day 6, Central Coast will host Adelaide United in an A-League Elimination Final on Saturday April 19. Should the Mariners win, they would have to quickly fly to Hiroshima for the Sanfrecce match at the Big Arch on Wednesday April 23 before returning to Australia to play either Western Sydney Wanderers or Brisbane Roar as early as Saturday April 26.
Scoring:
FCS Hutchinson (og) 92'
Line-ups:
Central Coast Mariners: Reddy; Rose, Anderson, Roux; Griffiths (Trifiro 80'), Hutchinson, Montgomery, Caceras, Kim (Duke 70'); Simon, Sterjovski (Ibini 56')
Unused substitutes: Pasfield, Fitzgerald, Cernak, Sim
FC Seoul: Kim Y.; Kim Ju.; Cha, Kim Ji.; Kim C., Ibanez; Choi (Kang 88'), Yun, Lee S.; Escudero, Rafael (Go 56') (Yun 82')
Unused substitutes: Lee W., Kim H., Sim, Kim Ch.