Roar fall to Adelaide at the death in front of strong home support

Adelaide United scored in stoppage time to claim a dramatic 3-2 win over the Brisbane Roar at Suncorp Stadium in front of 9,651 fans.

Before kick-off, the stadium observed a minute of silence to acknowledge the recent passing of Roar head coach Michael Valkanis’ mother.

Once the game got underway, the Roar came out firing. Minutes in, Jay O’Shea, back from an ankle injury, threaded a ball to Chris Long on the right flank. Long powered forward and sent in a cross that looked certain to find Michael Ruhs in the goalbox, but Adelaide’s Sotirios Phillis got a vital toe to it and sending the ball narrowly wide of the post. 

Not long after, Adelaide went close when Ryan Kitto broke through on goal and prepared for a close-range shot, yet All White James McGarry delivered a brilliant last-ditch tackle to snuff out the chance. 

Ten minutes later, Long met a bouncing ball from Youstin Salas’ throw-in and fired a volley that looked destined for the right corner. It struck the post, bounced off Adelaide goalkeeper Joshua Smits, and was cleared out of the goalmouth, leaving The Den gasping in disbelief.

The Roar continued to surge into the attacking third, firing a series of shots and keeping the Adelaide defence busy. 

In the 41st minute, Queensland’s homegrown talent Sam Klein put the Roar ahead in emphatic style, notching his second consecutive goal in two games. Picking up the ball just beyond halfway, he drove forward and unleashed a powerful shot from outside the box that beat a diving Smits and nestled into the bottom right corner, sending The Den into raptures. 

After the break, Adelaide equalised when Jonny Yull’s cross reached Brody Burkitt, who slotted it into the bottom left corner in the 56th minute.

The Roar fired back with a goal four minutes later. Chris Long picked up the ball just outside the centre of the box and shrugged off Adelaide centre-back Panagiotis Kikianis before drilling a rocket into the bottom left corner of the goal. He ran straight to celebrate in front of The Den.

Adelaide levelled once again to make it 2-2 in the 70th minute after Yaya Dukuly cut back a cross to Brody Burkitt, who drilled it into the net for his second of the match.

The two teams traded end-to-end chances with the scores level until two minutes into stoppage time when Brody Burkitt completed his hat-trick, rising to meet a perfectly placed cross and heading it into the right corner to give Adelaide the lead.

In the dying moments, Sam Klein curled a shot on goal, but a heroic dive from Smits kept the Roar at bay, and the final whistle blew with Adelaide winning 3-2.

The Roar look to next week’s fixture on the road against the Newcastle Jets.