Melbourne Victory’s premiership chances remain alive after Marco Rojas and Besart Berisha consigned Adelaide United to a 2-1 defeat at AAMI Park on Saturday night.
Rojas’ superb 66th minute free-kick and a clinical late second from Berisha pushed Victory back to within eight points of leaders Sydney FC.
Adelaide were energetic throughout the first-half but had teenage goalkeeper Daniel Margush to thank for a pair of excellent saves either side of half-time.
Rojas finally broke the Reds’ resistence with a wonderful curling free-kick just after the hour and might have doubled it soon after had his header not crashed back off the crossbar.
It was instead left to Berisha to seal all three points with an expert outside-of-the-boot finish as he became just the third man after Archie Thompson and Alex Brosque to score 50 Hyundai A-League goals for a single club.
Tarek Elrich fired home a late consolation for the visitors but it wasn’t enough to keep Victory from registering a crucial 13th win of the season.
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GOALS
1-0 Victory: Rojas, 66’
Scythed down outside the area, Rojas stepped up calmly and brilliantly swept his free-kick over the wall and inside the near post.
2-0 Victory: Berisha, 82’
Confronted by two defenders, Berisha opted instead to curl home an exquisite finish with the outside of his boot.
2-1 Adelaide: Elrich, 90’
Elrich made no mistake in latching onto Marc Marino’s classy flick-on, lashing the ball first-time past Lawrence Thomas.
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