{"id":665540,"date":"2026-05-12T07:27:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T07:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/665540\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T07:27:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T07:27:12","slug":"south-melbourne-fc-complete-unbeaten-leaders-group-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/665540\/","title":{"rendered":"South Melbourne FC complete unbeaten Leaders Group campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Melbourne FC finished their Leaders Group campaign unbeaten, following an entertaining 4-2 victory over Bula FC at Eden Park.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Having already secured a place in the semi-finals, some of the pressure was taken off the Australian outfit, but for Bula, there remained a chance to avoid the semi-final playoff and advance directly to the final four.<\/p>\n

South Melbourne made six changes to their starting line-up from their previous match, while Bula FC made seven. The reintroduction of Jack Pope to the starting eleven proved a smart call, with the forward opening the scoring in the 13th minute after sustained pressure \u2013 finishing from a tight angle after Didier Desprez misjudged a through ball.<\/p>\n

Bula FC responded six minutes later, with Christopher Wasasala threading an awkward pass through some broken play, before Ibraheem Afazal rounded Javier Diaz Lopez to equalise.<\/p>\n

Despite some fight from Steph\u00e1ne Auvray\u2019s men, South Melbourne FC turned up the heat as the half wore on \u2013 scoring two more goals to head into the break with a comfortable 3-1 lead.<\/p>\n

A penalty was given to the Hellas\u2019 in the 34th minute, when Jacob Eliopoulos was taken down in front of goal \u2013 with VAR deeming the offense a penalty. Max Mikkola stepped up to extend the lead.<\/p>\n

One more goal followed two minutes later, when Andrew Mesourouni volleyed home with aplomb to give his side a two goal cushion at the break.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Bula FC\u2019s Ivan Kumar South Melboune FC\u2019s Max Mikkola. OFC Pro League 2026, Leaders Series, South Melbourne FC v Bula FC, Eden Park Auckland, Tuesday 12 May 2026. Photo: Shane Wenzlick \/ www.phototek.nz<\/p>\n

Both coaches introduced a number of changes in the second half, with South Melbourne FC making three and Bula FC four of their own.<\/p>\n

Steph\u00e1ne Auvray\u2019s men emerged brighter in the opening exchanges of the half, putting the Australian side under sustained pressure as they looked to work their way back into the contest.<\/p>\n

South Melbourne\u2019s class remained however and they duly made it 4-1 through a wonderful Jordon Lampard goal \u2013 the full-back stroking the ball into the corner from the edge of the area having been set up by substitute Marco Jankovic.<\/p>\n

Sinisa Cohadzic\u2019s side continued to push to extend the lead, with their best chances to do so stopped by a busy Didier Desprez. At the other end, Bula persisted, determined to reduce the arrears.<\/p>\n

Roy Krishna was brought on to give Bula FC some additional firepower and the experienced striker came close, drilling an effort off the crossbar from a tight angle.<\/p>\n

The deadly marksman would get his goal not longer after, reacting first to a saved Nabil Begg effort in the box to tap home from close range and reduce the deficit to 4-2.<\/p>\n

South Melbourne would prove too strong however and held on fairly comfortably, completing an unbeaten Leaders Group campaign and giving them momentum heading into next week\u2019s semi-finals.<\/p>\n

South Melbourne FC:\u00a04 (Jack POPE 12\u2032, Maximilian MIKKOLA (P) 34\u2032, Andrew MESOUROUNI 36\u2032, Jordon LAMPARD 56\u2032)
Bula FC:\u00a02 (Ibraheem AFAZAL 19\u2032, Roy KRISHNA 78\u2032)<\/p>\n

HT: 3-1<\/p>\n

Photo Credit: OFC Media via Phototek<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Melbourne FC finished their Leaders Group campaign unbeaten, following an entertaining 4-2 victory over Bula FC at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-665540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}