# 2019 A-League Grand Final

The 2019 A-League Grand Final was the fourteenth A-League Grand Final, the championship-deciding match of the A-League in Australia and the culmination of the 2018–19 season. It was played on the 19 May 2019 at Optus Stadium in Perth between Perth Glory and Sydney FC, who finished the regular season first and second respectively. This was the first A-League grand final hosted in Perth and it is the highest attended grand final in A-League history.
Sydney participated in their fifth grand final, winning three of the previous four played prior to this match. Perth participated in their sixth grand final overall and second in the A-League era, winning two of the previous five.
The match ended 0–0 after extra time, with Sydney winning 4–1 on penalties to secure their fourth A-League title.

## Teams

In the following table, finals until 2004 were in the National Soccer League era, since 2006 were in the A-League era.
| Team | Previous final appearances (bold indicates winners) |
| Perth Glory | 5 (2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2012) |
| Sydney FC | 4 (2006, 2010, 2015, 2017) |

## Route to the final

| Elimination-finals | Elimination-finals | Semi-finals | Semi-finals | Grand Final | Grand Final |
| | | Perth Glory (pen.) | 3 (5) | | |
| Adelaide United (a.e.t.) | 1 | Adelaide United | 3 (4) | | |
| Melbourne City | 0 | | | Perth Glory | 0 (1) |
| | | | | Sydney FC (pen.) | 0 (4) |
| | | Sydney FC | 6 | | |
| Melbourne Victory | 3 | Melbourne Victory | 1 | | |
| Wellington Phoenix | 1 | | | | |
The A-League Grand Final is the grand final for the A-League, a professional club soccer league that is based in Australia and New Zealand. The 2018–19 season was the fourteenth season in history and also the 42nd of top-flight football in Australia. Each team played against each other three times throughout the season for a total of twenty seven matches. After the regular season, the top six teams qualified to play in the finals with the teams placed between third and sixth playing in week one of the finals while the top two teams got a week off. This meant that playing in the first week was, Adelaide United, Melbourne City, Melbourne Victory and Wellington Phoenix while Perth Glory and Sydney FC having the bye for the first week.
The grand final will be contested by Perth Glory and Sydney FC which respectively finished one and two after the regular season with Perth finishing ahead of Sydney by eight points. During the regular season, the two teams played three times with Sydney leading the head-to-head at two wins to one.

### Perth Glory

During the pre-season, they acquired former Socceroos Tomislav Mrcela from Korean club Jeonnam Dragons, Matthew Spiranovic from Chinese club Zhejiang Greentown and Jason Davidson from Croatian side HNK Rijeka in what became a trio in the backline. In the opening game of the season, they drew with Western Sydney Wanderers 1–1 at home with Andy Keogh scoring the first goal for Perth in the 2018–19 season. After gaining win in Round 2 and 3, Perth went to the top of the table after knocking off Adelaide United with two goals in the second half from Andy Keogh and Chris Ikonomidis securing the victory.

### Summary of results

| Perth Glory | Perth Glory | Round | Sydney FC | Sydney FC |
| 1st place Pos Teamvte Pld Pts 1 Perth Glory 27 60 2 Sydney FC (C) 27 52 3 Melbourne Victory 27 50 4 Adelaide United 27 44 5 Melbourne City 27 40 Source: A-Leagues (C) Champions | 1st place Pos Teamvte Pld Pts 1 Perth Glory 27 60 2 Sydney FC (C) 27 52 3 Melbourne Victory 27 50 4 Adelaide United 27 44 5 Melbourne City 27 40 Source: A-Leagues (C) Champions | Regular season | 2nd place Pos Teamvte Pld Pts 1 Perth Glory 27 60 2 Sydney FC (C) 27 52 3 Melbourne Victory 27 50 4 Adelaide United 27 44 5 Melbourne City 27 40 Source: A-Leagues (C) Champions | 2nd place Pos Teamvte Pld Pts 1 Perth Glory 27 60 2 Sydney FC (C) 27 52 3 Melbourne Victory 27 50 4 Adelaide United 27 44 5 Melbourne City 27 40 Source: A-Leagues (C) Champions |
| Opponent | Score | | Opponent | Score |
| Bye week | NA | Elimination Finals | Bye week | NA |
| Adelaide United | 3–3 (5-4 on pen.) | Semifinals | Melbourne Victory | 6–1 |

## Pre-match
### Venue

The Grand Final was held at Optus Stadium in Perth, and was the second time that a major soccer match was held at the stadium, after the friendly between Perth Glory and Chelsea on 23 July 2018. The stadium is mainly used as an Australian rules football ground for the West Coast Eagles and the Fremantle Dockers in the Australian Football League in the winter months, while in the summer it's used for cricket for the Perth Scorchers and occasionally the Australia national cricket team.

### Ticket details

Ticket sales started on the Monday prior to the event. In the first few hours over 35,000 tickets had been sold, of which 20,000 were from club members. Two days later tickets went on sale to the general public.

## Match
### Summary

The match started at 4:45pm AWST in Perth with Shaun Evans, recipient of the A-League Referee of the Year, as the referee. The match was his first A-League Grand Final.

### Details

| Perth Glory | Sydney FC |
| GK | 33 | Liam Reddy |
| CB | 6 | Dino Djulbic | 116' |
| CB | 13 | Matthew Spiranovic |
| CB | 4 | Shane Lowry | 23' |
| RM | 5 | Ivan Franjic | | 90' |
| CM | 88 | Neil Kilkenny | 69' | 105' |
| CM | 27 | Juande | 90+1' |
| LM | 3 | Jason Davidson |
| RF | 7 | Joel Chianese | | 73' |
| CF | 17 | Diego Castro |
| LF | 19 | Chris Ikonomidis | | 115' |
| Substitutes: ||
| GK | 1 | Tando Velaphi |
| DF | 23 | Scott Neville | | 90' |
| MF | 20 | Jake Brimmer | | 105' |
| FW | 9 | Andy Keogh | | 73' |
| FW | 11 | Brendon Santalab | | 115' |
| Manager: Tony Popovic ||
| GK | 1 | Andrew Redmayne |
| RB | 23 | Rhyan Grant | 88' |
| CB | 4 | Alex Wilkinson |
| CB | 2 | Aaron Calver |
| LB | 7 | Michael Zullo |
| AM | 22 | Siem de Jong | 55' | 78' |
| DM | 6 | Joshua Brillante |
| DM | 13 | Brandon O'Neill |
| AM | 10 | Miloš Ninković |
| CF | 14 | Alex Brosque | | 95' |
| CF | 9 | Adam Le Fondre |
| Substitutes: ||
| GK | 20 | Alex Cisak |
| MF | 8 | Paulo Retre |
| MF | 11 | Daniel De Silva |
| MF | 17 | Anthony Cáceres | | 78' |
| FW | 16 | Reza Ghoochannejhad | | 95' |
| Manager: Steve Corica | 31' |
| Joe Marston Medal: Miloš Ninković (Sydney FC) Assistant referees: Andrew Lindsay Paul Cetrangolo Fourth official: Chris Beath | Match rules 90 minutes. 30 minutes of extra time if necessary. Penalty shoot-out if scores still level. Five named substitutes. Maximum of three substitutions. |
* A-League 2019 Champions
* Sydney FC

### Statistics

Overall statistics :
| | Perth Glory | Sydney FC |
| Goals scored | 0 | 0 |
| Total shots | 10 | 3 |
| Shots on target | 2 | 0 |
| Ball possession | 59% | 41% |
| Corner kicks | 8 | 2 |
| Fouls Conceded | 16 | 19 |
| Offsides | 2 | 4 |
| Yellow cards | 4 | 2 |
| Red cards | 0 | 0 |

## Broadcasting

The Grand Final was broadcast live throughout Australia on Fox Sports and Network Ten. The radio rights for the grand final was held by ABC with their grandstand coverage of the game.