Adelaide United made it three wins on the trot with a dominant 2-0 victory over Perth Glory at Coopers Stadium as the Reds reclaimed fourth position in the Isuzu UTE A-League.
Nestory Irankunda’s stoppage-time rocket sealed the points for Adelaide, who had been leapfrogged by Wellington Phoenix earlier on Sunday.
The Reds welcomed back Bernardo and Ryan Kitto into the starting line-up for the match against bottom side Perth and that duo combined for Adelaide’s goal midway through the first half.
Substitute Nestor Irankunda iced the win in stoppage time with a spectacular strike, seconds after Perth squandered a glorious opportunity to equalise.
Injury-wracked and struggling, last-placed Perth’s chances were few and far between while Adelaide regularly threatened the visitors’ goal, with Bernardo featuring heavily in the Reds’ forays.
Lachlan Brook fed Bernardo, who cut inside his defender but his curling effort went past the post in the fourth minute.
Minutes later, Brook was involved again, this time slipped through by Craig Goodwin but his first touch was heavy and Glory keeper Liam Reddy was off his line quickly to collect.
Adelaide broke the deadlock in the 24th minute.
On a dazzling run, Kitto turned his defender and drove into the box before squaring a pass for Bernardo who skipped in ahead of his opponent and tapped in.
The Reds almost had a second in first-half injury time when Bernardo burst past his defender and lifted a cross for Hiroshi Ibusuki, but the Japanese striker’s header was kept out thanks to a brilliant reflex save from Reddy.
After the interval Adelaide continued to rack up the chances and it was Javi Lopez who was first to try his luck, shooting just over after cutting inside on his left.
Lopez was involved in Adelaide’s next chance on the hour, teasing a left-foot cross for ibusuki but again his header was expertly saved by Reddy.
With 16 minutes remaining the Glory thought they had an equaliser when substitute Joshua Ansamo pounced on a loose ball, broke through the Reds defence and curled his shot into the top corner. But the referee’s assistant flagged for offside.
Perth had the perfect chance in injury time when Aidan Edwards was teed up in the penalty area but he shot wide.
In the next passage of play, Irankunda collected the ball just outside the area, drove towards goal and unleashed a venomous strike into the top corner to make it 2-0.
