In a lively end-to-end contest in front of 6,845 fans, Brisbane Roar fell 3-2 to Melbourne City at Suncorp Stadium in their final home match of the Isuzu UTE A-League 2025/26 season on Saturday evening.
After an evenly poised opening twenty minutes, the match sparked into life.
Melbourne City carved out a flurry of chances when Kavian Rahmani drove forward and fizzed a strike that rattled the left post. Marcus Younis then thought he had opened the scoring when he nodded in a corner, but his effort was chalked off for a foul in the box. Younis was soon back in action and found himself behind the Roar defence, but he couldn’t catch Roar goalkeeper Dean Bouzanis, who produced a sharp diving save to maintain parity.
The men in orange drew first blood just before the break. Georgios Vrakas bent a lofted delivery across the six-yard box, finding Justin Vidic, who volleyed it past Melbourne City custodian Patrick Beach from close range, sending the Den into raptures.
The Roar started the second half on the front foot, with Vidic coming close again early on as he headed a cross from Sam Klein just wide of Beach’s left post.
Just after the 60-minute mark, a tackle from Noah Maieroni brought down City forward Younis in the box, and referee Daniel Elder pointed to the spot. Younis calmly slotted the penalty into the bottom-left corner to drag the score level at 1–1.
Younis struck again five minutes later, firing home a rebound after Bouzanis saved a near-post effort from City substitute Medin Memeti.
Klein came close to pulling one back ten minutes later, latching onto a pass from Quinn MacNicol before drilling his effort wide of the left post.
City added a third goal with ten minutes to play. Winger Elbasan Rashani delivered an in-swinging cross that Memeti blazed into the net.
In stoppage time, Youstin Salas marked his first A-League goal in spectacular fashion, meeting a loose ball with a thunderous long-range volley that rocketed into the back of the net.
The Roar pushed for an equaliser, coming close when Klein curled an effort from just outside the box, but were unable to find a way through, and Melbourne City secured a 3–2 win.
