Brisbane Roar are back in the A-League Women finals series after a five year wait thanks to a 2-1 win away to Canberra United in the final match of the regular season.
After a tense opening ten minutes, Roar were dealt a major blow when star attacker Bente Jansen injured her ankle in a challenge which saw youngster Keira Meyers enter the action as the replacement.
However, ten minutes later an expert Kijah Stephenson pass found Aimee Medwin inside the box who finished cooly in the right hand corner to send the Roar in front on the 20 minute mark.
The remaining period of the first half remained tight and tense with chances few and far between, sending Roar to break with a slender one goal advantage.
The Roar were forced into a second substitution at the beginning of the half after Kijah Stephenson was deemed to have suffered a suspected concussion and ultimately replaced by Amali Kinsella.
The beginning of the second period began with Canberra throwing themselves forward in search of an equaliser and created a raft of half chances until the Roar broke down the field in the 60th minute and found Alicia Woods inside the area. The midfielder however wasn’t able to find the back of the net, with her flashing strike hit the side netting.
Three minutes later Canberra found their equaliser through a Michelle Heyman header which was unable to be denied by custodian, Chloe Lincoln. Incredibly, the Roar retook the lead in the 68th minute thanks to an incredible Olimpico goal from Alicia Woods’ corner kick.
From there, the Roar were able to hold out the home side, including an immense 95th penalty save from Chloe Lincoln, to book their first finals series berth in five years along with clinching a home Elimination Final against Adelaide United with details on the fixture set to be announced in the coming days.
