Berisha fires brace as Melbourne Victory stun Sydney fc

Melbourne Victory has ended Sydney FC’s unbeaten start to the season, winning a Hyundai A-League classic 4-2 on Saturday night.

In a pulsating clash at Allianz Stadium, last season’s grand finalists put on a show for the crowd of just under 16,000 fans.

There were four goals inside the first 28 minutes with Filip Holosko and Alex Brosque scoring for the Sky Blues and Besart Berisha and Gui Finkler for Victory.

And the see-sawing nature of contest continued after the break as the Sky Blues hit the woodwork twice before substitute Kosta Barbarouses and a second for Berisha won it for the visitors.

GOALS

1-0 Holosko (5’) – Alex Gersbach dribbled around two defenders on the left and surged into the box before squaring across the face of goal and giving Holosko a simple close-range tap-in.

1-1 Berisha (9’) – Receiving the ball with his back to goal 25 yards out, Berisha turned Jacques Faty and then let rip, the ball taking a slight deflection off Matt Jurman on its way into the net.

2-1 Brosque (20’) – The Sydney skipper played in Shane Smeltz on the right of the box and continued his run forward. The Kiwi international’s low shot was only parried by Danny Vukovic and Brosque was on hand to sweep it home.

2-2 Finkler (28’) – Daniel Georgievski slipped in Finkler who had ghosted in behind the Sydney defence on the right-hand side of the box. From an acute angle the Brazilian blasted a shot towards goal which snuck in at the near post.

2-3 Barbarouses (68’) – Finkler’s shot from just outside the box deflected perfectly into the path of Barbarouses. The substitute killed the ball with his first touch before calmly slotting it past Janjetovic.

2-4 Berisha (90+2’) – With Sydney pushing for an equaliser, Victory countered with Berisha left one-on-one with Faty. He produced a skilful step-over before burying his left-foot shot in the bottom corner

Sydney FC: Janjetovic, Grant, Faty, Jurman, Gersbach, Tavares (O’Neill 85’), Dimitrijevic, Holosko (Blackwood 78’), Brosque, Ninkovic, Smeltz (Simon 69’)

Melbourne Victory: Vukovic, Georgievski, Deng (Barbarouses 46’), Delpierre, Murnane, Broxham, Mahazi, Bozanic, Finkler (Makarounas 90+4’), Ben Khalfallah (Howard 88’), Berisha

3:09 AM