The Brisbane Roar were undone by an 86th minute Wellington Phoenix strike, falling 2–1 at Suncorp Stadium in the Isuzu UTE A-League on a sunny Saturday afternoon.
It was a physical start to proceedings with both teams chasing valuable points in the push for Finals football.
The men in orange drew first blood just before the 15-minute mark. New Zealand international fullback James McGarry whipped in a low, inswinging corner that brushed off the Phoenix defence and crept inside the near post.
McGarry was soon in action again, this time at the other end, rising to head away a Dan Edwards cross and snuff out a Phoenix threat.
Midway through the first half, the Roar almost doubled their lead from another corner, as captain Jay O’Shea whipped an inviting ball to the far post for Sam Klein, whose header forced Phoenix custodian Josh Oluwayemi into a desperate save.
The Phoenix then built momentum and found their equaliser in the 36th minute, when Alex Rufer’s chipped pass was headed on by Isaac Hughes for Corban Piper to slot home.
The sides went into the halftime break level at 1-1.
Just after the restart, the Roar gave the visitors another scare from a corner. The ball broke loose from a congested goalmouth to Justin Vidic, whose cleanly struck volley was well saved by Oluwayemi.
The Roar maintained their attacking pressure, and continued to carve out openings through Michael Ruhs, Georgios Vrakas, and Justin Vidic.
The Phoenix went close deep into the second half when Kazuki Nagasawa’s powerful strike flashed towards the bottom-left corner, but Dean Bouzanis got a strong hand to tip it wide.
Near the end of regulation time, Phoenix youngster Luke Brooke-Smith surged forward and threaded a pass into the path of Eze, who tucked it away with his left foot to give the visitors a 2–1 lead.
The men in orange pressed for an equaliser, but the New Zealand visitors held on to defeat the Roar 2-1.
