(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Muscat Storm was held to a 3-3 draw by a much improved Team Romania on Wednesday.
Storm started the game with a new formation that worked well as it controlled the proceedings in the opening 20 minutes.
The back four looked strong, while the attack had plenty of ball possession.
Storm's dominance paid off when some smart play between Oli Myhill and Jay Wynter in the 20th minute saw the latter set up Kirk McPherson. McPherson eased past Team Romania's defence, beating the keeper to the ball and lobbing it into the back of the net.
Storm kept applying pressure on its opponent and a neat finish from Sean Lawless was ruled out for off-side. Team Romania was defending deep, but doing it quite well as Storm kept searching for a second goal.
It soon came as Lee Ebbutt and Lawless played a one-two and Myhill sent a curling pass to McPherson, who rounded Team Romania's keeper to score again.
Trailing by two goals, Team Romania worked hard and its persistence was rewarded in the 35th minute when a cross was not cleared by the Storm defence, resulting in a goal.
Team Romania made it 2-2 shortly before the break when Storm keeper Lawrence Baker passed the ball out to Steve Vickers and the ball wobbled over his foot, allowing Adrien to calmly slot home the equaliser.
A buoyant Team Romania outfit was taking control of the second half and looked confident as it looked to build on the two goals it scored. Also, it was defending well and keeping the Storm attack at bay.
Team Romania deservedly went 3-2 up when one of its strikers intercepted a pass, and with a quick exchange of passes and a cross to the far post, scored from a header.
Storm continued to give away possession easily and was unable to create any clear chances. With just a few minutes to go, Storm's Johnny Murphy deftly set up McPherson, who calmly drew out Romania's keeper to complete his hat-trick and ensure a draw for his team.
Ebbutt, Storm's manager, said, "We tried something different today and in the first 30 minutes it worked well. Later, we lost our way a bit. Team Romania have improved vastly and played well, and I think we underestimated them, which we won't do again. We ground out a hard but deserved draw."
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