Rochdale knock out Fleetwood Town in FA Cup extra time with stunning free kick

It took a direct free kick in extra time for Rochdale to settle an FA Cup tie that Fleetwood Town came close to pushing to penalties. The final score, 1-2, wasn't sealed until the 110th minute, when Baba Adeeko surprised everyone with a strike that flew straight into the center of the goal.

The match, played at Highbury Stadium, started with Rochdale striking first. In the 22nd minute, Luke Hannant finished from close range down the right side after an assist from Charlie Tasker, and that 0-1 held up through the entire first half even as Fleetwood Town already signaled danger with Aaron Loupalo-Bi's constant appearances down the right side of the box.

In the second half, Fleetwood Town found the reward it had been chasing. In the 73rd minute, Kaiden Wilson brought down Aaron Loupalo-Bi inside the box and the referee pointed to the spot. Ronan Coughlan made no mistake, driving his shot to the center of the goal with his right foot to make it 1-1. The equalizer seemed to be steering the match toward a goalless finish to regulation, though Coughlan later had as many as three clear chances (in the 79th, 81st and 82nd minutes, the last two coming alongside a Loupalo-Bi header) to put his side ahead and couldn't convert any of them.

With no goals in regulation, the match went to extra time. There, with a penalty shootout already looming, Adeeko stepped up, having come on from the bench just minutes earlier: his direct free kick in the 110th minute beat Fleetwood Town's defense and set the final score at 1-2.

Numbers from a match even on the scoreboard but lopsided in control

Fleetwood Town was the more insistent side for much of the match, holding more possession and creating far more chances inside the box, though efficiency ended up even between the two teams.

Seventeen shots to nine and ten corners to just two make clear the gap in attacking volume in favor of Fleetwood Town, which pushed especially hard in the second half and extra time. But Rochdale made the most of its few chances: one clinical finish in the first half and a set piece in extra time were enough to take the result.

The preview published ahead of the match gave Rochdale a 41 percent chance of winning, against 29 percent for Fleetwood Town and a 30 percent chance of a draw, with expected goals of 1.35 for the visitors and 1.09 for the hosts. The final result lined up with that forecast: the team that came in with better odds on paper was the one that walked away with the win, though it had to wait until extra time to confirm it.

What the match leaves behind

Rochdale advances in the competition after a match in which it controlled neither the ball nor the final third, but still knew how to show up at the moments that mattered: Hannant's early goal and Adeeko's late strike. Fleetwood Town, for its part, is left with the feeling of having created more than its opponent, with Coughlan at the center of it all, both for converting the penalty and for the chances he couldn't finish while the match was level.