Victory, Roar share spoils in entertaining contest

Ange Postecoglou had to settle for a 1-1 draw against his former side Brisbane Roar, as Melbourne Victory failed to convert chances into goals in an entertaining game at Aami Park.

Ben Halloran opened the scoring midway through the first half for the visitors, firing past Nathan Coe after some sloppy defending from the home side, while Socceroos international Mark Milligan found an equaliser three minutes into the second half with a power strike.

Victory dominated the early goings, as the visitors had Michael Theo to thank early, who denied Marco Rojas on two separate occasions, first parrying away a low drive, before producing a wonderful reflex save to deny a volleyed effort by the Kiwi international.

Much to the dismay of the home crowd, the Roar took the lead against the run of play through Halloran, who fired the ball brilliantly past Nathan Coe after Diogo Ferreira failed to clear the ball.

The home side came out with immediate impact in the second half, as they levelled the scores three minutes into the half. Milligan played a quick one-two with Guilherme Finkler before unleashing a wonderful strike which left Theo with no chance.

It wouldn’t be a Brisbane game without an incident involving Besart Berisha, as the Albanian tussled with Victory captain Adrian Leijer, which ultimately led to the Brisbane striker hitting the deck.  Berisha seemed to have injured his shoulder in the incident, and had to be subbed off minutes later, with Henrique taking his place.

Theo continued his brilliant afternoon as he produced some wonderful saves to deny Finkler and Thompson, ensuring a share of the spoils after a great game of football. 

MV – Nathan COE, Adama TRAORE, Diogo Ferreira, Guilherme FINKLER ,  Mark Milligan, Nick Ansell, Marcos FLORES (Andrew NABBOUT 72^nd min), Marco ROJAS, Billy CELESKI, Adrian LEIJER, Archie Thompson (Jonathon BRU 87^th min).

BR – Michael THEO, Matthew SMITH, Shane STEFANUTTO, Ivan FRANJIC, Jack HINGERT (Yuji TAKAHASHI 88^th min), Erik PAARTALU, Massimo MURDOCCA, Thomas BROICH, Besart BERISHA (HENRIQUE 60^th min), Ben HALLORAN, Mitch NICHOLS (DONG HYUN 73^rd min).