Brisbane Roar take on the Western Sydney Wanderers at Wanderers Football Park in the Liberty A-League on Sunday as they continue their pursuit of a top four finals spot with three games remaining.
The Roar currently sit sixth on the ladder, with Western Sydney in ninth place. Brisbane are six points behind Melbourne Victory in fourth place and will look to make an impact in the last games.
Brisbane have won their last seven Liberty A-League matches on the bounce against Western Sydney Wanderers in New South Wales; the Roar have conceded only two goals across those seven games.
They have made 17 shots from set pieces this season, the joint-second most of any team in the competition and eight more than Western Sydney.
The Roar are coming off a stellar win against Western United and will look to continue this form heading into this match-up.
These teams last met on December 17 on Brisbane home soil at AJ Kelly Park which resulted in a 1-0 victory over the Wanderers.
Larissa Crummer found momentum early on in the 9th minute and had a shot on goal directed straight at the keeper.
The ball took a deflection and Hollie Palmer was able to follow up and ensure it went into the back of the net to put it away and see the Roar on the scoreboard first.
The remainder of the match was quiet and lacked goal conversions, but opportunities arose for both sides.
In the 25th minute Western Sydney’s Sophie Harding beat Brisbane defence and put a cross in for Holly Caspers who strikes it wide of the far post.
Wanderers centre-back Clare Hunt took a shot from long-range to float the ball just over the top right corner in the 44th minute and made Hensley Hancuff dive to ensure the score line was not equalised.
Jessie Rasschaert found herself on the end of a Hollie Palmer free kick and attempted a header on goal but there was not enough power behind it to test the Wanderers goalkeeper in the 63rd minute.
Brisbane kept a very strong counterattack to pressure Western Sydney defence throughout the 90 minutes and were unfortunate to not get more goals on the board.
Holly McQueen made her debut start for the Roar in last week’s victory after bouncing back from an ACL injury and will be hoping to get more minutes this weekend.
“Certainly, a big achievement to start, always great to minutes under my belt and winning, just an awesome feeling,” McQueen said.
“The last year has been hard, ACL, not the best thing especially when you’re just starting to come through the system but I think doing all my rehab and coming out stronger is now finally starting to pay off,” she added.
Forward Shea Connors has been in peak form in the back end of the season, scoring two goals to beat Western United last weekend which resulted in them being stripped of their first-place position.
“I’m just trying to stay consistent and just continuing to build each week and just taking off the high from the week before and trying to bring it into the next performance,” Connors said.
She believes that a top four finals spot is still possible if they win their three remaining matches and the other teams’ results play out well in their favour.
“I think it’s definitely in reach if we win the three games, I don’t think it’s going to be easy but what we can do is take the three points in each game going forward and hope some other results go our way,” she said.
“The Wanderers are always super physical, and it’s always a really hard match-up with them so we are looking forward to a good battle but we are looking to take those three points on the road.”
Catch the action at 3:00pm AEST on Paramount+ and 10Play.
