Sydney FC will face Auckland FC in the Isuzu UTE Grand Final after a dramatic penalty shootout win at McDonald Jones Stadium.<\/p>\n
Piero Quispe scored first around the hour mark before Eli Adams\u2019s equaliser at the death of the 90 minutes forced extra-time.<\/p>\n
Newcastle had more of the attack throughout the first stage of the game, with both Lachie Rose and Clayton Taylor missing difficult chances.<\/p>\n
James Delianov spared Mark Natta\u2019s blushes, making a strong save to deny Tiago Quintal after the Sydney attacker dispossessed the Newcastle defender. <\/p>\n
This turned the momentum in Sydney\u2019s favour, but the score remained 0-0 as neither Akol Akon nor Apostolos Stamatelopoulos could get their shots on target.<\/p>\n
Stamatelopoulos was lucky to get away with one late in the first half, stomping on Lachlan Bayliss\u2019s already strapped hand after the Kiwi winger was brought to ground in a challenge.<\/p>\n
Sydney hit the front through Quispe just after the hour mark, the Peruvian winger in the right place to tap home the rebound from Akon\u2019s saved shot.<\/p>\n
Newcastle came within millimetres of an equaliser 10 minutes later, Taylor\u2019s low whipped cross just too far ahead of the diving Xavier Bertoncello.<\/p>\n
Harrison Devenish-Meares had had a quiet night up to the 86th minute, but he was there and ready to deny Joe Shaughnessey\u2019s effort from a Taylor cutback. <\/p>\n
With Sydney looking like they were home, up stepped Adams in the very last minute of stoppage time to bang in an equaliser on the half-volley.<\/p>\n
With both teams tiring, the match couldn\u2019t be settled in extra-time and needed penalties to decide who would continue to the Grand Final.<\/p>\n
Sydney substitute Joe Lolley had his penalty saved first, then Newcastle sub Kosta Grozos had his stopped.<\/p>\n
Rhys Youlley, Kota Mizunuma, Victor Campuzano and Ben Gibson all scored their spot kicks to keep the shootout level.<\/p>\n
Sydney FC skipper Rhyan Grant put his penalty straight down the middle, before Bertoncello had his saved by Devenish-Meares.<\/p>\n
Ben Garuccio stepped up to convert his kick and send Sydney through to the Grand Final in Auckland next weekend.<\/p>\n
MATCH HIGHLIGHTS<\/p>\n
Sydney FC goal: Quispe 64\u2032<\/p>\n
Newcastle Jets goal: Adams 96\u2032<\/p>\n
WHAT THEY SAID<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sydney FC will face Auckland FC in the Isuzu UTE Grand Final after a dramatic penalty shootout win…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[25191,25192,25193,220569,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-431002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-a-league-men","tag-a-leagues","tag-almfeatured","tag-finals26","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}