Brisbane Roar held by nine-men Victory

MELBOURNE VICTORY - BRISBANE ROAR 2-2 (2-2)

In the fifth round of the Hyundai A-League the Brisbane Roar have extended their unbeaten run to thirty three games after they were held to a two all draw against nine men Victory.

It was a nightmare start for the Victory, as goalkeeper Covic was sent off sixty seconds into the game after he brought down Berisha. Henrique stepped up to convert the resulting penalty and hand Roar the lead.

The lead however, did not last long as Thompson levelled the scores after ten minutes with a sublime touch to lob Theoklitos after being brilliantly played through by Ferreira.

After twenty minutes, the visitors had much of the possession as the Victory were happy to sit back and hit their opposition on the counter. The plan came to work only moments later as Harry Kewell dispatched Henrique of the ball on the half way line before delivering a pin-point pass to the deadly Thompson who twist and turned past Jurman before slotting the ball past Theoklitos for his second of the evening.
Brisbane were back on level terms after twenty six minutes, after Leijer fouled Broich outside the area, who then stepped up and fired a low free-kick through the Victory wall and past Thomas to get his side back on level terms.

Brisbane continued in search for a third, as Broich had an effort ricochet off the post, while Henrique had an effort cleared off the line by Leijer.
Matters went from bad to worse in the thirty sixth minute for the home side as they were down to nine men after Foschini was given his marching orders for a tackle on Broich.

After the break, Brisbane continued to have more possession, however Victory’s stubborn defence limited them to long range efforts which were to no avail.

The first real chance of the half fell to Archie Thompson after a long ball by Harry Kewell , saw him through on goal with only Jurman to beat however the Roar defender did well to prevent a clear chance on goal. Only moments later, the Roar had a golden opportunity to take the lead as Broich delivered an intelligent ball to Steffanutto who on his opposite foot could only fire straight into the arms of Thomas.

As the half wore on, Victory were quite happy to slow the game down, allowing the visitors to hold possession and ensure their defence remained resolute for the remainder of the game.

With five minutes remaining, Broich almost stole the points for the visitors with a thunderous drive from outside the box which flew just wide of the post.
In the dying stages, Brattan delivered a beautiful free-kick into the area which was headed goalbound by Jurman however he was denied by a full stretch save by Thomas.
That turned out to be the last opportunity for the Roar, who leave Melbourne disappointed knowing they let an opportunity slip to further extend their lead at the top of the table.

Football Sack Player of the Match

3 – Thomas Broich
2 – Archie Thompson
1 – Rodrigo Vargas

MV – Ante COVIC, FABIO, Matthew FOSCHINI, Leigh BROXHAM, Archie THOMPSON, Rodrigo VARGAS, Diogo FERREIRA, Tomislav PONDELJAK (Lawrence THOMAS (GK) 3rd min), Carlos HERNANDEZ (Daniel ALLSOPP 71st min), Harry KEWELL (Billy CELESKI 64th min), Adrian LEIJER. Subs not used - Marco ROJAS.

BR – Michael THEOKLITOS, Matthew SMITH, Shane STEFANUTTO, Matthew JURMAN, Ivan FRANJIC, Erik PAARTALU, Besart BERISHA, Massimo MURDOCCA, HENRIQUE (Issey NAKAJIMA-FARRAN 64th min), Mitchell NICHOLS (Luke BRATTAN 71st min), Thomas BROICH. Subs not used – Mohamed ADNAN, Andrew REDMAYNE (GK).