Luckless Brisbane have come to the end of their maiden AFC Champions League campaign tied in last place and without a win after spurning a multitude of chances to draw with Beijing Guoan at Brisbane Stadium.
Luckless Brisbane have come to the end of their maiden AFC Champions League campaign tied in last place and without a win after spurning a multitude of chances in a 1-1 draw with Beijing Guoan at Brisbane Stadium.
The Roar created gold-platter opportunities from start to finish through an aggressive and surprising performance from an under-strength side, but were made to pay for their wastefulness by the visitors, who claimed a share of the points through a cracking first-half equaliser from Li Hanbo.
Brisbane rattled the post and were denied by a handful of brilliant reflex saves from Yu Yang in the final 10 minutes, representative of the flow of the entire match.
The Roar’s go-ahead goal came at the quarter-hour mark in a rare display of clinical finishing, with Mitch Nichols threading the perfect through ball for Kofi Danning to one-touch pass across the face of goal to Hyundai A-League Golden Boot winner Besart Berisha.
Considering neither side had a chance to progress to the next stage from Group F, the match was played with intensity, and included several heated pushing exchanges, with Erik Paartalu, Nichols, Thomas Broich and Ivan Franjic all taking exception at various stages.
Berisha, James Meyer, Massimo Murdocca and Broich were among those who had chances to claim a winner in the final stages, but Yu remained unbreakable and his defence worked desperately to protect him.
With several first-choice Roar players absent, including skipper Matt Smith and attacker Henrique, Danning was one young gun who made the most of his opportunity, proving a point of difference with his ability to get in behind the defence.
While the Roar would have felt short-changed by the draw, they were close to losing when Beijing substitute forward Mao Jianqing fluffed a one-on-one chance in the 77th minute.
Beijing Guoan had been dormant for the majority of the opening half-hour, but when given the opportunity to equalise in the 34th minute they made no mistake.
Captain Shao Jiayi slid the perfect pass in behind debutant Roar left-back Corey Brown, where Li gave the keeper no chance, netting a rocket from the edge of the area.
Brisbane Roar: 1(Berisha 15)
Beijing Guoan: 1 (Li Hanbo 34)
Crowd: 5615
