Sydney FC moved into the Australia Cup quarter finals thanks to a Round of 16 win in Brisbane against Roar headlined by Ben Garuccio’s thumping first-half volley.
Patrick Kisnorbo’s side, fresh off a positive showing against Tottenham last week, shot out of the blocks in this 4-2 win, with new recruit Takahiro Sekine opening the scoring with a back post header in the second minute of the contest after tidy build-up play from Garuccio and Tiago Quintal.
Garuccio stole the show with a stunning strike in the 24th minute, latching onto Jordan Courtney-Perkins’ bouncing ball, catching Dean Bouzanis off guard with an opportunistic, well timed strike.
A four-goal opening stanza finished with Rhys Youlley and Jordan Layton trading goals, and when Alexander Popovic turned one into his own net in the second half, it set up an interesting finish with the game poised at 3-2. But new Sydney signing Gabriel Popovic finished off an Al Hassan Toure cross to round out the win and passage to the Australia Cup final eight.
“I’m very happy to be able to score another goal and to get the win as well. Progressing through is very important for me and the team,” Quintal said afterwards.
“I think we let the game get away from us a little bit in the second half. We took complete control of the first half, but towards the end we conceded a late goal.
“That’s definitely something we need to improve on – being able to control the game all the way through. But in the end we fought hard, got another goal and got the win, so I’m very happy.”
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