Brisbane Roar drew first blood against rivals Central Coast Mariners in their first leg of the Hyundai A-League Finals Series, defeating the visitors 2-0.
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| Credit: Brisbane Roar |
The Roar took the lead eight minutes in through Henrique who capitalized on a fortuitous ball headed to his feet by Matt Smith off a corner kick. The Brazilian was a relieved man having blown a chance to score off a penalty seconds earlier.
Star Mariners goalkeeper Mat Ryan read Henrique’s shimmy well to collect the penalty kick. Though he couldn’t go one more, Ryan was once again showing his best form as he was forced to make save upon save in a hectic first half from Brisbane who looked back to their lethal best at Suncorp.
Central Coast gained some momentum towards the end of the first half, but went into the sheds facing a 1-0 deficit.
Brisbane were on the offensive straight after the restart, but there were better signs from the Mariners with Rogic backing himself to in a diving header a couple of minutes in which forced a reflex Theoklitos save.
Central Coast looked switched on and their passing game was giving the Roar the run around for much of the second half.
Erik Paartalu put the result beyond doubt in the 88th minute though, finishing off a touch of brilliance from the German maestro Thomas Broich who weaved his way around a handful of defenders to set up the Viking and give the home team a 2-0 buffer close to full time.
More to come…
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