John Aloisi believes the best is yet to come from Aleksandar Prijovic after the star striker salvaged defending champions Western United a 1-1 against Brisbane Roar in the Isuzu UTE A-League.
Prijovic’s wonderful diving header with 12 minutes remaining cancelled out Carlo Armiento’s lovely 28th-minute goal at AAMI Park on Friday night.
Last season’s Joe Marston Medallist Prijovic had a limited pre-season due to a lingering toe injury but has scored three goals in five games and added some much-needed sharpness to Western’s attack.
“I wasn’t sure whether he was going to last the 90 (minutes) or the whole game tonight,” Western head coach Aloisi told reporters.Â
“Because this was a little bit of a tricky one because of the short turnaround, the amount of games that he’s played in a short period, because he didn’t have a pre-season, didn’t play many games.
“So we’re glad that he got through it and now we’ve got a longer turnaround and he’ll be better for it.
“So he’s scoring goals, even when he’s not playing at his best and we know that Aleks can give us that.”
Brisbane are unbeaten in seven matches and sit sixth, while Western are ninth and unbeaten in three games.
The Roar struck when Jay O’Shea drove a pass into Henry Hore and the forward flicked the ball into the path of Armiento, who lifted it into the back of the net for his second goal in two matches.
Western got a foothold in the game after Aloisi called upon some fresh legs.
The introductions of Nicolas Milanovic at half-time, Dylan Pierias and Rhys Bozinovski in the 55th minute and Noah Botic in the 76th gave Western a burst of energy as they dealt with a four-day turnaround.
Western came desperately close to equalising when Botic’s on-target header was deflected clear in the 78th minute.
Less than a minute later, Josh Risdon cut onto his right foot and launched a brilliant cross into the six-yard box where a diving Prijovic headed home.
Dylan Pierias skimmed a deflected effort over the bar in the 81st minute while Western goalkeeper Jamie Young made a crucial diving save at the death to deny a rocket from Jordan Courtney-Perkins.
“We’re really disappointed because I felt the game was there for the taking for us tonight,” Brisbane head coach Warren Moon told reporters.
“We were in control in the first half, probably could have been out of sight before their equaliser.”
There were touching scenes pre-match when both teams held a moment of applause in memory of football legend Pele, while Western defender Leo Lacroix, who is Swiss but of Brazilian heritage, held up a Brazil shirt.
Western skipper Alessandro Diamanti started his first game in 313 days but James Troisi missed with a calf injury.
