Bruno Fornaroli’s world-class brace has secured Melbourne City’s passage to the A-League semi finals, earning his side a comprehensive 2-0 win.
Player ratings for both teams can be found below.
Melbourne City
Thomas Sorensen (GK) – 7: Relatively untroubled. Almost made a meal of a first half cross from Risdon.
Patrick Kisnorbo – 9: A gargantuan performance by the City skipper. His best this season.
Alex Wilkinson – 8: Not as physically imposing as his central defensive partner, but just as assured.
Paolo Retre – 7: Gave everything for his side before earning a rest with 10 minutes to play.
Jack Clisby – 8: Very solid in defence. Arguably his best performance in a City shirt.
Osama Malik – 8: Negated Glory’s attacks well, and was generally assured in possession.
Anthony Caceres – 8: Clean in possession and showed his class with excellent movement off the ball.
Aaron Mooy – 8: Now playing at a level City require to win the lot, albeit slightly subdued in the second half.
Nick Fitzgerald – 7: A willing runner as always and involved in a great battle with Warren. Quality of crosses was better than usual.
Bruno Fornaroli – 10: Opened the scoring with a bicycle kick, before icing the cake with an excellent set piece effort. Both efforts rendered Covic useless.
Ben Garuccio – 7: Did surprisingly well against Risdon in pinning back the defender.
Substitutes
Connor Chapman – 6: Aside from conceding a late free kick, the defender was relatively faultless.
Jacob Melling – 7: Much improved performance after
Marc Marino – 7: Might have scored after his introduction. Helped to stretch an already tired Glory defence.
GOAL #BrunoFornaroli half time 1-0 to Melb City.#ALFINALS #MCYvPER @MelbourneCity @ALeague pic.twitter.com/8r6XhWxNc6
— Dougiejam (@Dougiejam) April 17, 2016
Perth Glory
Ante Covic (GK) – 6: Was not helped by his defence, and couldn’t have done anything about either of Fornaroli’s sublime efforts.
Josh Risdon – 6: Can not be accused of not giving it his all, but struggled to impact the fixture.
Alex Grant – 4: Hauled off at the break for Djulbic. The promising defender will have better days in the Glory shirt.
Shane Lowry – 5: Lucky to escape a red card for his first half challenge on Caceres. Could not deal with Fornaroli’s movement as he did in Glory’s 3-2 win in round 26.
Marc Warren – 7: Performed well against the pace of Fitzgerald and bombed forward when able.
Krisztian Vadocz – 6: City were allowed too much freedom in midfield and was not able to negate Mooy’s influence.
Gyorgy Sandor – 5: Could not get on the ball enough to trouble City’s defence.
Nebojsa Marinkovic – 7: Good in possession and worked hard off the ball.
Chris Harold – 5: Lacked his usual spark in wide areas.
Andy Keogh – 4: Very little service throughout, making no impact.
Diego Castro – 4: Largely anonymous performance, clearly hampered by his heavily strapped hamstring.
Substitutes
Dino Djulbic – 7: Half time sub for Grant. His experienced helped Perth get a serious foothold in the match before Fornaroli’s game-sealing goal. Faded late along with his team.
Richard Garcia – 6: Brought on with 15 minutes remaining with little impact. Had an effort saved by Sorensen.
Kosta Petratos – 5: Introduced to the action very late and could not stamp his authority on the contest.
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