henrique swoops as bordeaux snatch late win published: thursday 24 october 2013, 22.57cet
fc girondins de bordeaux 2-1 apoel fc
henrique hit a 90th-minute winner to get the struggling hosts off the mark in group f, after an open game in which both teams hit the woodwork.
henrique helped ease the pressure on struggling fc girondins de bordeaux as he hit a 90th-minute winner to see off apoel fc.
time looked to be running out for bordeaux when henrique just about got enough on diego rolán's free-kick to snatch the group f spoils and leave apoel's giorgos donis still seeking his first point in charge. the visitors looked to have earned a point courtesy of esmaël gonçalves' equaliser just before half-time, which cancelled out ludovic sané's 24th-minute header, but it was not to be.
it was all going to plan for bordeaux as they approached half-time with a deserved lead. emboldened by sané's first goal of the season, the defender rising at the far post to glance in grégory sertic's corner from the right, they were constantly picking at the apoel back line. twice urko pardo had to be alert to the threat of ludovic obraniak, ghosting into the box.
yet with the dressing room almost in touching distance, it was 1-1. the lively stathis aloneftis did the hard work, peeling away on the left and delivering a delicious ball for gonçalves, who started his career in france with ogc nice, to turn in at the far post. suddenly the hosts, so compact until then, looked like a side with one win in nine games.
for much of the second half apoel were equal to their hosts, matching them chance for chance as the game opened up. when obraniak struck a deflected effort against a post, aloneftis did likewise with a sweet left-footed volley at the other. yet bordeaux, their uefa europa league ambitions ebbing away, upped the tempo in the closing stages. diego rolán poked wide, pardo denied cheick diabaté, but there was no stopping henrique.
