Gold Coast United End Asian Tour With 5-0 Win

Strikers Andrew Barisic and Milson helped themselves to a brace each as Gold Coast United swept past Hong Kong FC 5-0 in the final game of their Asian tour at Happy Valley on Friday night.

Despite the oppressive 35-degree heat, United were rarely troubled by the locals but had to wait until the half-hour mark before they turned their dominance into goals.

A piercing long pass from youngster Richard Greer caught out the home defence and Brazilian import Milson raced clear to finish comfortably.

Moments later Milson doubled his and United’s tally when he capitalised on a poor clearance from the Hong Kong goalkeeper and made no mistake with his second attempt after his first effort was blocked.

Two-nil at the break and United were really cruising and it was just a minute into the second period when youngster Gol Gol Mebrahtu added the third goal of the night.

Matt Osman won the ball on the right hand side then watched gleefully as his pin-point cross was flicked on by Andrew Barasic to Mebrahtu, who found the net with relative ease.

With Hong Kong struggling to hold back wave after wave of United attacks, they succumbed again in the 51st minute.

Mebrahtu and Barisic combined beautifully on the edge of the box to engineer space before the former Melbourne Knights hit-man slipped the ball past the advancing goalkeeper to make it 4-0 to the visitors.

Barisic completed his double strike to make it 5-0 to Gold Coast with nine minutes remaining when he was in the right place at the right time to knock home a loose ball after Joel Porter’s strike was deflected into his path.

The victory made it three wins out of three for Miron Bleiberg’s men on their overseas excursion to New Caledonia and Asia, with the statistic of fourteen goals scored and none conceded bound to please the United Head Coach.

Immediately after the game Bleiberg’s squad departed Hong Kong and headed back to the Gold Coast where they will begin their preparations for the visit of English Premier League side Fulham to Skilled Park this Wednesday night (8 July, 8.00pm kick off).

HONG KONG FC-0
GOLD COAST UNITED-5 (Milson 30’, 31’, Gol Gol Mebrahtu 46’, Andrew Barisic 51’, 81’)

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