The Nix had a goal overturned by the Video Assistant Referee and, for the second match in succession, were denied two penalties, the second of which appeared to be clear-cut when Hideki Ishige was brought down in the Brisbane box. I think we did enough there to win the game. We had some really big chances. I thought they were pretty decent with the ball. All Whites defender Tim Payne was reinstated to the bench after missing the past four matches with a foot injury.
The Roar settled the quicker of the two sides and could have taken the lead inside 60 seconds. A clearance cannoned off Brisbane debutant Nathan Amanatidis and was dipping under the bar before Alby Kelly-Heald intervened to tip it over.
Kelly-Heald made another save a handful of minutes later to keep out a powerful effort from Ben Halloran after Isaac Hughes made a great last-ditch tackle in the Phoenix penalty area to snuff out another early Roar opportunity. Brisbane should have opened the scoring in the seventh minute but Samuel Klein inexplicably headed over the bar from just a couple of yards out.
But as the players prepared to kick-off the Video Assistant Referee intervened and after a long review the goal was ruled out with Ishige deemed to be offside by the slimmest of margins. The next contentious moment came little over half an hour into the match when the Phoenix vociferously appealed for a handball in the Roar box. However, their appeals were waved away by referee Jack Morgan and this time the VAR saw no reason to intervene.
The most controversial call was made on the stroke of halftime when Ishige appeared to be fouled in the Brisbane penalty area. The VAR believed referee Morgan needed to take a second look at the challenge but after a lengthy review he decided not to award a penalty and the two sides remained scoreless at halftime.
