© David Kirouac-Imagn Images
Atlanta United booked their ticket to the opening round of the Eastern Conference playoffs with a dramatic penalty shootout win over Montréal.
Scorers: Martínez 63′, 89′ (P) ; Lennon 29′, Gregersen 44′
Montréal had been red-hot coming into the Wild Card round, winning five of their last seven games to steal a spot in the postseason on the final day of the campaign.
But their good form and fortune appeared to run out against the Five Stripes Tuesday evening at Stade Saputo.
Despite dominating the possession throughout the opening interval, they were undone by a patient Atlanta side that strung together more than 45 passes in the buildup to Brooks Lennon’s opener.
While the hosts responded well, they were sucker punched in the dying minutes of the half when Stian Rode Gregersen headed home from a corner.
The mood soured around the home crowd but they were revitalized past the hour mark when former Atlanta United legend Josef Martínez capitalized on a goalmouth scramble to pull the hosts to within one.
The late push may have resulted in some sweaty palms across Atlanta, but it remained rather tame apart from some solid goalkeeping from Brad Guzan to keep his side ahead.
The pendulum finally swung in Montréal’s favor when they were awarded a penalty-kick in the dying minutes after Brooks Lennon took down a Montréal player right on the edge of the box, but a VAR check revealed that foul was just inside the box.
Who else would step up but Josef Martínez, who punished his former team once again to pull level and send the showdown to penalties.
In the shootout however, it was Montréal who missed first, and a spotless Atlanta United showed cool heads to fire home all of their attempts and stun the home crowd.
Atlanta can now turn their attention to a first-round showdown with Supporters Shield winners Inter Miami in the best-of-three series.
