Adelaide edges out Heart in friendly

Both teams opened the match on the attacking front which proved entertaining for fans who turned out at Melbourne’s Epping Stadium.

Despite missing key players Zenon Caravella and Fabian Barbiero, plus new signings Marcelo Carrusca and Jeronimo Morales Neumann, it was the Reds who opened the scoring in the 10th minute of the match, thanks to an impressive long range strike from Vidosic.

But Heart wasn’t giving up the friendly so easily, Golgol Mebrahtu’s header found the back of the net 20 minutes later to level the scores.

After the break, Adelaide coach John Kosmina replaced Eugene Galekovic, Nigel Boogaard, Jake Barker-Daish and Sergio van Dijk for Paul Izzo, Osama Malik, Cameron Watson and Bruce Djite.

On the hour mark, Heart landed a penalty for a handball against Iain Fyfe in the area. But new Heart signing Dylan Macallister’s effort was held off by Izzo.

The roles were reversed just 10 minutes later, when the referee pointed to the spot again, after the Reds’ Evan Kostopoulos was adjudged to have been brought down.

Vidosic made no mistake, taking the score to 2-1 with his second goal of the night. Heart almost equalised in the dying minutes of the match when Nick Kalmar fired just wide of Izzo’s left post, with the visitor holding on to its lead at the final whistle.

Adelaide now heads to Launceston for a friendly against Melbourne Victory on Friday night, before turning its attention to preparations ahead of its Asian Champions League quarter-final with Bunyodkor on September 19.