Melbourne City 0 Perth Glory 2: Castro inspires Elimination Finals revenge mission

Diego Castro scored one and assisted another as Perth Glory gained revenge on Melbourne City in a 2-0 victory to book an A-League semi-final berth.

Twelve months ago, it was City defeating Glory in the Elimination Finals round, but on this occasion Castro helped inspire Perth to the last four.

The Spaniard showed neat footwork to open the scoring before assisting Joel Chianese to double the visitors’ tally at AAMI Park on the half hour.

Last week,City almost fought back from a 4-1 deficit against Perth in a dramatic 5-4 defeat, but there was to be no similar fightback as Glory booked a semi-final contest with Sydney FC.

FULL TIME | YES YES YES! WE’RE IN THE @ALEAGUE SEMI-FINALS! (0-2) #MCYvPER #GloryIsOurs pic.twitter.com/xToaPB6pLt

— Perth Glory FC (@PerthGloryFC) April 23, 2017

The visitors were in the ascendancy from the off and Andy Keogh held up the ball before cleverly playing in Castro, who jinked inside from the left of the box and shot into the far corner.

Castro was influential again when he slid in Chianese, who worked the ball on his left foot and placed his effort beyond Dean Bouzanis and into the bottom-left corner.

The second half was looking relatively comfortable for Glory, until City had a double chance with eight minutes to go – Liam Reddy saving well from Bruno Fornaroli before Nick Fitzgerald blazed the rebound over.

Reddy also made a brilliant one-handed stop from Ivan Franjic’s long-range effort, but Glory deservedly progressed as City’s season came to an end.