Melbourne Heart FC’s hopes of a third consecutive victory were dashed by a late Sydney FC surge this evening at Allianz Stadium.
Melbourne Heart FC’s hopes of a third consecutive victory were dashed by a late Sydney FC surge this evening at Allianz Stadium.
Two goals at the death gave Frank Farina’s side a 2-1 win over the Red and White on a wet Sunday night evening in Sydney.
Heart appeared set for a third straight victory when Richard Garcia’s first-half goal gave them a well-deserved lead.
But the Sky Blues bounced back through late goals from skipper Brett Emerton and defender Rhyan Grant, the latter in stoppage time, to steal an unlikely win.
Emerton, who received a chipped through ball from Terry McFlynn, wriggled his way around three defenders in the box, slotedt home an equaliser with five minutes left.
And with the seconds ticking away, Sydney’s marquee man Alessandro Del Piero produced a cross which landed on the head of Grant who glanced his header underneath goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne.
The hosts went into the game with the unwanted record of never scoring against the Heart in Sydney and there was nothing to suggest that was going to change early on.
It was the Heart who were enjoying most of the possession, with skipper Fred going close on 14 minutes with a shot that skidded just wide.
Heart didn’t have to wait much longer to take the lead though, with Garcia nodding home his fourth goal of the season.
After catching Sydney napping at a free-kick, Nick Kalmar played a one-two with Fred before floating in a pin-point cross to the back post where Garcia leaped above Grant to power past Vedran Janjetovic.
Sydney thought that they had struck back two minutes before the break as Jason Culina’s free-kick was headed into the net by Sebastian Ryall, only for the goal to be correctly ruled out for offside.
Sydney continued to struggle to break down the Heart’s defence after the break with the visitors going close to doubling their lead when Garcia’s low shot was smartly saved by Janjetovic.
With a little over five minutes left, Emerton made amends for an earlier miss, before Grant popped up with the winner at the death.
Sydney FC 2 (Emerton 85, Grant 90+3)
Melbourne Heart 1 (Garcia 24)
Crowd: 13,125 @ Allianz Stadium
