The Canadian Championship played Wednesday was a keenly contested match. Retired Ivory Coast international, Didier Drogba is the reason Montreal Impact have a second shot at the cup as they crashed 4-2 in the first leg of the tie against Toronto FC.
The series was almost over even in the first leg until Impact pushed and scored two away goals after they had allowed four earlier.
The end results would be very painful for Toronto FC who would have thought they had booked a straight ticket to next year’s CONCACAF’s Champions League with just the result from the nights.
The hosts were not any single one of their Designated Players unlike Impact, yet they mauled them until the last three minutes when the visitors forced the pair of goals, in a game they deployed their first team attackers.
Didier Drogba sent the cross that allowed Michael Salazar to head home with minutes from stoppage time. Same hero Drogba’s stoppage-time free kick beat Clint Irwin at the near post to give the Impact new life. The star player single handedly gave the team a lifeline ahead of the second leg.
At the post match interview, Montreal’s Mauro Biello said:
“It’s disappointing to come out that way. Toronto wanted it more. You could see in the first half. We were second to everything. We were too casual. It’s not like they controlled things. They just beat us to the ball. In the end, I’m happy we were able to come back. It gives us a boost and we have a series. It’s about continuing to improve defensively.”
Montreal were already two goals down before the referee blew the whistle for the first half in the game filled with fights and interruptions. The return leg is in Quebec next week and it already promises to be one tough encounter.
According to latest StanJames betting odds, Drogba’s team are still rank outsiders to win the match, but they’ll give it a good shot.