The Roar
The Roar

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After more than a few deep breaths, Sydney FC are champions

Where to now for football in Australia? (AAP Image/David Moir)
Editor
7th May, 2017
13

Sydney FC have completed their historic record-breaking season, taking the 2016/17 crown with one of the greatest grand final wins in the A-League’s short history.

All the wash-up from the A-League grand final
» Recap: Sydney are champs, as they deserve
» Five talking points from the match
» Player ratings: Melbourne Victory
» Player ratings: Sydney FC
» Georgievski wins Joe Marston Medal
» Re-live the live blog

With one goal each at the end of regulation time, an additional half an hour of extra time still couldn’t separate the bitter rivals, leading both sides into the penalty shootout.

It wasn’t pretty, with Sydney missing the first of the big chances, before Carl Valeri hit the woodwork to even things up.

With proceedings back on level pegging, it was a Danny Vukovic save that opened the door up for the Premiers.

Having just won the player of the season award, Milos Ninkovic stepped up to the mark with the title on the line and slotted it beautifully into the bottom right corner of goal to send Allianz Stadium into pandemonium.

Before all that though, it was a chaotic, physical, emotional, entertaining and classic game of football.

Melbourne shot out of the gates and really took the fight to the pre-game favourites, holding the bulk of possession and flustering the home side in the early exchanges.

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The Albanian goal-scoring machine Besart Berisha broke the early deadlock, continuing his incredible record in finals football with a peach of a solo effort from just over halfway.

With two defenders to beat and no support on the counter, he cut back in and out to turn his marker all over the place towards the box, before sinking a clinical curling finish into the right edge of the net.

Sydney struggled to keep up in the opening half, but it was the second stanza that saw Graham Arnold’s men step up into the form that found them so much success this season.

The game continued to ebb and flow but the Sky Blues were able to wrestle control midway through the second half.

In a moment of pinball action and pure chaos, left back Rhyan Grant was able to latch onto a deflected David Carney shot that rebounded off the right post and the head of Berisha on the line.

Grant rushed through in front of keeper Lawrence Thomas to push home the finish from right in front as the Sydney crowd went crazy.

From that moment on it continued to be an absolute nail-biter, with both sides creating attacking opportunities, but equally unable to finish them off when it counted.

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It was a heated affair with plenty of aggression throughout the game, including an incredible 11 yellow cards and a ridiculous 61 fouls throughout the contest.

The one-on-one battles and tense clashes kept the game on an emotional knife edge throughout the 120 minutes.

The atmosphere and crowd were electric throughout, combining with the outstanding quality of football and the massive occasion has made for one of the best games of football seen in Australia for a long, long time.

Final score
Sydney FC 1 (4)
Melbourne Victory 1 (2)

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