It took extra-time but Melbourne Victory have advanced to the A-League Semi-Finals following a 2-1 win over Perth Glory at Ettihad Stadium on Friday night.
For Perth it was a harsh result as they held the lead for virtually the entire match before an insane finish knocked them out of contention.
There was some good news for Perth in the build up as Shane Smeltz was declared fit, allowing Glory to play with their star striker.
For Melbourne their squad news was quite different with Jason Geria, Scott Galloway and Daniel Mullen all starting at the back in their first Victory finals match.
Perth Glory looked to target the least experienced, Geria and Galloway, playing on the wings and that lead to chances for Adrian Zahra and Ryo Nagai to set up their strikers.
Glory finally had a good chance in the 11th minute as Zahra was played through on goal but sent his effort over the bar.
Four minutes later Perth had their goal as Scott Jamieson made a solid run up the left which allowed him space to cross which neither Adrian Leijer or Nathan Coe could deal with, allowing Nagai to calmly chest the ball in to the empty net.
Jamieson continued to impress for Perth as he succeeded at keeping Marco Rojas' influence down allowing Perth to dominate the midfield battle but still struggle to create chances.
Melbourne Victory finally got a chance in the 35th minute when Rojas crossed for Leigh Broxham but his shot was deflected wide.
In the 49th minute Ange Postecoglu went to his bench and brought on Marcos Flores, who was surprisingly left on the bench, in place of Geria forcing a change in shape.
Despite that introduction Perth continued to do well and the next chance fell to Smeltz who was played through by Liam Miller but was denied as Coe smothered his attempt.
Victory had the next chance and it was through the fresh Flores as he looked to loop his header over Danny Vukovic but could only find the roof of the net.
Perth were put on notice by Flores' effort and changed their tactics to operate on the counter and that produced another opportunity with less than 20 minutes to play as a Nagai cross set-up Smeltz who sent his cross over the bar.
With time running out Perth were handed another golden opportunity when a penalty allowed Shane Smeltz to step up with just two minutes to play. But Smeltz's shooting woes continued as he slammed the penalty in to the crossbar.
With the match heading to stoppage time, and Perth seemingly heading for a date with Western Sydney, Andrew Nabbout was brought down by Steve Pantelidis in the box, forcing the referee to show Steven Pantelidis a red-card.
Mark Milligan stepped up to the spot and kept his cool to score the penalty which would send the match in to extra-time with momentum well and truly shifted.
A man down and momentum with Victory it was always going to be hard for Perth and just four minutes in to the first half of extra time Melbourne Victory had their goal as Rojas crossed for Archie Thompson who headed the ball home.
Perth could have had another penalty moments after Thompson put the hosts in the lead but Nagai's claims were waved away as Perth struggled through extra-time allowing Victory to advance.
Victory were the only side that looked like winning in extra-time and held off Perth easily for a 2-1 victory.
The result sees Melbourne Victory set up a semi-final date with Central Coast Mariners in Gosford next Sunday.
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