A ten-man Brisbane Roar suffered a 4-2 defeat at the hands of Perth Glory in the Australia Cup Finals Round Play Off at Darwin Football Stadium on Tuesday night.
Goals from Keegan Jelacic and Adam Zimarino weren’t enough for Roar against a Perth side who progressed courtesy of an Abdelelah Faisal brace along with goals from David Williams and Nathaneal Blair.
Glory started the match with their foot on the throttle and rattled the woodwork with a Brandon O’Neill free-kick inside two minutes before Macklin Freke made several smart saves to deny Williams and Faisal.
Jelacic opened the scoring in the 17th minute he made space for himself inside the area before rifling a finish into the roof of the net after being played in by Jay O’Shea.
Moments later O’Shea forced Oli Sail into a smart save after almost sneaking an effort into the bottom corner.
Glory levelled the scores in the 38th minute when Williams was on hand to finish a Faisal cross at the back post after the winger made a jinking run into the Roar penalty area.
The game was turned on it’s head in the 52nd minute when Perth were awarded a penalty and Corey Brown was shown a straight red card after the defender was adjudged to have handled Williams goal bound header before Faisal stepped up to convert the spot kick.
Roar came back swinging and despite their numerical disadvantage nearly found an equaliser with only a goal-line Joshua Rizzo sliding challenge denying Jelacic a second goal of the night.
In the 55th minute Faisal notched his second of the night when he put the finishing touch on a lightning counter attack from David Zdrillic’s side.
Substitute, Blair added a fourth for Glory when he slid in to turn home a Williams cross from deep with a first time finish in the 65th minute.
Zimarino marked his Roar debut with a goal against his former club in second half stoppage time when he evaded his marker before curling a tidy finish into the back of the net.
Zimarino’s strike proved to be too little too late for the Roar as Perth prevailed 4-2 to progress to the Australia Cup Round of 32.
The forward was one of four players to debut for the Roar alongside Ben Warland, Marcus Ferkranus and Harry Van Der Saag while Ben Halloran made the first appearance of his second stint in Brisbane.
MATCH DETAILS
Australia Cup 2024 – Final Rounds Playoffs: Brisbane Roar v Perth Glory
Darwin Football Stadium at Larrakia Park
Tuesday, 23 July
Brisbane Roar – 2 (Keegan JELACIC 17’, Adam ZIMARINO 92’)
Perth Glory – 4 (David WILLIAMS 38’, Abdelelah FAISAL 52’ 55’, Nathanel BLAIR 65’)
