FC Cincinnati 3-3 Chicago Fire: Evander leads hosts´ stirring fightback

Evander led the way for FC Cincinnati as they recovered from 3-1 down with 11 minutes to play against the Chicago Fire, salvaging a 3-3 draw at TQL Stadium in MLS.

The struggling Orange and Blue looked to be down and out after a Hugo Cuypers brace and a Philip Zinckernagel penalty put Chicago in charge, but their Brazilian talisman scored one goal and forced another in a dramatic finale.

Chicago hit the front through Cuypers in the 26th minute, with Roman Celentano unable to keep out the Belgian’s volley on the spin, despite getting his fingertips to the ball.

Some more suspect goalkeeping allowed Cincinnati to level in the 42nd minute, with Tom Barlow reacting quickest after Chris Brady could only parry Bryan Ramirez’s drive, but the hosts still went into half-time behind thanks to Zinckernagel’s spot-kick, which was awarded for Samuel Gidi’s clumsy foul on Cuypers.

The game looked to be up when Cuypers’ left-footed volley bounced into the bottom-left corner three minutes into the second half, but Cincinnati rallied.

Evander made it 3-2 from the penalty spot after Gerardo Valenzuela was hauled down by Mbekezeli Mbokazi, then, in the 86th minute, his deep free-kick deflected off the unfortunate Dje D’Avilla and rolled into the corner.

The result keeps Cincinnati 10th in the Eastern Conference while Chicago are fourth, having been overtaken by both Inter Miami and Charlotte FC.

After Miami’s 3-2 win over the Colorado Rapids, Charlotte beat New York City 2-1, while Nashville SC pulled four points clear at the summit with a 2-0 success over Atlanta United, thanks to second-half goals from Cristian Espinoza and Shak Mohammed.

Our as Star of the Match! pic.twitter.com/vnlio9fL0n

— FC Cincinnati (@fccincinnati) April 19, 2026

Data Debrief: Nothing to split teams again

Cincinnati’s late fightback maintained the competitive balance of this fixture, with each of the teams’ last 12 regular-season meetings being either drawn or decided by a one-goal margin.

And the visitors could have few complaints at having to settle for a point, given Cincinnati racked up 3.71 expected goals (xG) from 23 shots, compared to Chicago’s 1.77 xG from 18 attempts.