Brisbane snatch glory with A-League title
Reuters - Sunday 22 April 2012, 09:19
The Brisbane Roar became the first club
to successfully defend the A-League title when striker Besart
Berisha scored a dramatic penalty in stoppage time to seal a 2-1 smash-and-grab win over the Perth Glory in the Grand Final on
Sunday.
The Roar could be considered fortunate to be awarded the
penalty after former Manchester United midfielder Liam Miller
was adjudged to have brought down Berisha in the penalty area.
Albanian Berisha, scorer of Brisbane's late equaliser,
stepped up to convert the penalty in the 97th minute to complete
the turnaround win and leave the majority of the 50,000 crowd at
the Suncorp Stadium delighted.
The defeat was tough on Perth, who had led 1-0 with six
minutes remaining but ended the game with 10-men after Dean
Heffernan picked up a second yellow card shortly before
Berisha's winner.
Perth owner Tony Sage was seen in tears as his players
collected their runners-up medals.
"I feel like I've been robbed there with the decision, it
cost us the grand final," Perth skipper Jacob Burns said of the
penalty award.
"You could see plain as day... you could see it by
Berisha's reaction. He came up straight up and said it wasn't a
penalty. I'm just gutted."
Perth had gone in front in the 51st minute after an own
goal from defender Ivan Franjoc and had looked like they would
claim their first Grand Final title before Berisha headed in an
equaliser with six minutes to play.
Despite the efforts of Glory goalkeeper Danny Vukovic,
Berisha, the winner of this season's golden boot, came up with
his 21st of the campaign at the death to claim the title.