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The Brisbane Roar have kept their finals hopes alive with a 6-1 thumping of the Central Coast Mariners at Suncorp Stadium.
It was the Steven Lustica show at Suncorp Stadium tonight as the former Gold Coast and Adelaide midfielder scored the first hat trick of his professional career to give the Roar the win.
Two goals in the first half, and a final goal in the second half to Lustica, gave Brisbane a lifeline in their finals hopes.
It was a match that would be over in the first half as Brisbane put three goals past the Mariners.
With the return of Thomas Broich, from a long injury layoff, Brisbane found their form which had been missing in the last four matches.
On the 21st minute they showed that as they opened the scoring.
Broich would put in a great through ball to Kaluderovic who would open the scoring for the Roar with a nice shot past Reddy in the goals.
It would then be the Lustica show seven minutes later, as the midfielder rocketed two goals past the Mariners defence.
The first goal would come from a corner as Broich passed to Lustica.
Lustica would then crack the ball from outside of the box, get a deflection, and find the top corner of the goal.
With four minutes to go before half time, Lustica would hit another shot from outside of the box, that would move along the ground and into the net for a goal.
This gave Brisbane a handy 3-0 at half time which would be extended quickly.
Devante Clut would add a fourth goal on 48 minutes before Brandon Borrello would cut through the Mariners defence to add a 5th.
After an own goal for the Mariners after 65 minutes, Lustica would complete his hat trick to make it 6-1.
The win moves Brisbane to within 5 points of Melbourne City with 4 games to go.
A loss to City over the Wanderers will make it game on in the race for a top 6 spot.
As for the Mariners they need to re-group after the loss.
The loss is their biggest in the A-League and they need to bounce back quickly before they play the Wanderers next week.
The Brisbane Roar put their season on the line tonight when they face the Central Coast Mariners at Suncorp Stadium. Join The Roar for live coverage from 8:00pm (AEDT).
A draw or loss to the Mariners will almost certainly end the Roar’s finals chances.
A loss would see Melbourne City 8 points ahead, which would raise to 11 if City beat the Wanderers.
This would require Brisbane to win their last four games, and for City to score nothing from their last three, to make the finals.
Meanwhile the Mariners have only won one point from their last three games, and are playing for next year.
Both contests between these two this season have been close.
In the first clash, on December 27, they played out an enthralling 3-3 draw. In their last clash, on February 13, the game was goal-less for 50 minutes before Brisbane won 2-0.
Both teams have made changes from last weekend. The home team is without Jerome Polenz, who is out with a groin injury, replaced by Shannon Brady, who signed a four-year deal with the club this week.
The Mariners have added two players to the team that lost 2-1 to the Victory last Friday night. Brent Griffiths – who won’t return to the club next year – and Travis Major have been promoted to the team.
Prediction
The previous two matches have been close and both teams have struggled for form recently.
Brisbane have to win tonight to stay alive but have struggled to find motivation to do that in recent weeks.
Based on that, and form, I predict the two teams to even each other out and the match to end in a draw.
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