Brisbane Roar has gone down 2-0 to Melbourne City at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night.
City put the pressure on the Roar from the first whistle but the men in orange did well to hold off their attacking force in the opening 20 minutes.
A corner in the 22nd minute found the feet of City forward Andrew Nabbout, who latched onto the ball to put it in at the near post, giving his side the lead.
As halftime approached, a penalty was awarded to City after Callum Talbot was brought down in the box.
Facing his former side, Jamie Maclaren slotted it home from the spot to put City 2-0 ahead.
After halftime, Moon brought on midfielder Rahmat Akbari and defender Jordan Courtney-Perkins, changing the formation to give the side a defensive boost.
Just two minutes into the second half, Taras Gomulka was sent off for a tackle on Kai Trewin, taking City down to 10 players.
With one less player on the pitch, City tightened their defensive line, making the Roar try to find any gap they could to snare a shot on goal.
Roar wasn’t without their chance, Austin’s strike from range in the 72nd minute to the City goalkeeper was one of their best chances.
Roar Head Coach Warren Moon was honest in his assessment of his team’s performance on Friday night.
“Melbourne City is a good team, I’ve said this before but I think they’re the benchmark of the competition but that doesn’t take away from our performance which I believe was poor tonight,” he said.
“There were certain things we did tonight that were sloppy and below of what I expect from this team.
“We expect them to have the ball, they’re a very good side but we made some errors at critical times, and we got punished for it,” he added.
Roar will be on the road in Round 3 of the Isuzu UTE A-League as they take on the Western Sydney Wanderers on Saturday 22 October at 4pm AEST.
FINAL SCORE
Brisbane Roar 0 – 2 Melbourne City (Nabbout 22’, Maclaren 39’)
Suncorp Stadium
