04 Feb City Hold Off Roar Attack

Melbourne City have held off a fast finishing Brisbane Roar attack with a 2-1 win at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday night.

Roar looked dangerous, but City’s midfield bringing the pressure in the front third wasn’t enough for the home side.

The home side started brilliantly with forward Massimo Maccarone providing the first strike through an Eric Bautheac set-piece free.

Roar’s lead was temporary after City got the equaliser  three minutes later, with exciting young midfielder Daniel Arzani providing an assist to Marcin Budzinski with his fifth goal of the season – Arzani almost gave City the lead one minute later, but was denied.

Maccarone and Bautheac linked together before the end of the half with the frenchman passing it short to the Italian who hit the ball above the crossbar.

City had the first opportunity of the second half through playmaker Dario Vidosic who scored but was offside of the last defender and denied to give them the lead.

The visitors got the lead through midfielder Stefan Mauk from a phenomenal cross from Budzinski who is having a fantastic game.

Veteran Roar winger Fahid Ben Khalfallah got fouled inside the 18 yard-box by City captain Michael Jakobsen.

Roar failed to equalise through a Massimo Maccarone conversion from the spot with an easy save from Bouzanis, which silenced the fans at Suncorp.

The home side tried hard to press for an equaliser through Ivan Franjic and Jack Hingert in the latter part of the contest.

City held off Roar in the end, and securing the three points with the away side cutting the deficit to four points behind Newcastle Jets in third position – City at home to the rampant Sydney FC next Saturday night at AAMI Park.

Brisbane Roar will also be heading to Victoria to take on City’s rivals Melbourne Victory on Friday night, hoping to claim three points and to save their season.