No Besart Berisha, no problem. At least on Boxing Day, as Brisbane Roar ripped through Sydney FC 5-2 at the Allianz Stadium. 21-year-old Dimitri Petratos, the former Sydney forward, scored twice from the spot in recording a hat-trick to power the A-League’s top side to a key away victory. With Western Sydney Wanderers lurking, all three points for the Roar guarantee that they’ll be atop the ladder on New Years Day.
Dimitri Petratos hat-trick leads Brisbane Roar past Sydney FC
Brisbane finish the calendar year atop the A-League after putting five past Sydney at the Allianz Stadium on Boxing Day.
Brett Hemmings
While Brisbane dominated the game statistically, completing over 500 passes at nearly a 90% rate, the first twenty minutes did not necessarily look like a rout was on the cards. Alessandro Del Piero, back in the Sydney XI after missing last week's game in Wellington, scored from a brilliant free kick in the 11th minute to give the home side an early lead. What followed was three goals in sixteen minutes for the Roar, including Thomas Broich's equalizer from a fantastic Luke Brattan feed, Petratos' first penalty and the young forward's second goal, which came complements of Broich but was the culmination of a wonderful team build-up in the final third. That left the score 3-1 to the Roar and effectively ended the game.
Petratos added a second penalty, completing his hat-trick, in the 78th minute before Ivan Franjic and Richard Garcia tallied in injury-time to reach the final score line. Brisbane will be at least two points above Western Sydney, depending on how the Wanderers' game goes on Saturday at Melbourne Victory. The Roar's next game does not come until Saturday January 4 against the Victory at AAMI Park. Sydney will try to break its two-game losing streak in traveling to Adelaide United at the Coopers Stadium on Friday January 3.
Scoring:
SYD Del Piero 11’
BRI Broich (Brattan) 20’
BRI Petratos 23’
BRI Petratos (Broich) 35’
BRI Petratos 78’
BRI Franjic 93’
SYD Garcia 94’
Line-ups:
Sydney FC: Janjetovic; Abbas, Petkovic, Ryall, Bojic; Carle, Thompson (Gligor 61’); Garcia, Del Piero (Gamerio 46’), Emerton (Yau 61’); Despotovic
Unused substitutes: Necevski, McFlynn
Brisbane Roar: Theo; Donachie, Smith, North (Brown 79’), Franjic; McKay, Brattan (Yeboah 83’), Miller; Broich, Henrique (Borrello 70’), Petratos
Unused substitutes: Acton, Ferreira
See More:
