Former Melbourne Victory defender Sebastian Ryall has scored a dramatic late equaliser as Sydney FC snatched a point in a 2-2 draw with Melbourne Victory in the Australia Day clash at AAMI Park.
Victory looked set for the win when they scored two goals - one from Isaka Cernak and the other an own goal from Sydney keeper Liam Reddy - in the space of two minutes on the cusp of half-time.
But Sydney, who had by far the better chances to score, finally responded on 56 minutes through Bruno Cazarine.
They then waited until the 90th minute to draw level with Ryall scoring his first-ever A-League goal after a scramble in the box.
It was a point which was richly deserved by the visitors, who played by far the better football, only to fall behind after lapses late in the first half.
Given false comfort by their two-goal buffer, Victory again gave up the lead and are still four points adrift of the top six with nine matches to play.
Sydney stay sixth having stretched their unbeaten streak to three matches.
Sydney were the dominant team of the first 30 minutes, taking advantage of Victory's insistence of playing very deep in defence.
While Victory had the first chance, thwarted by a timely intervention by Scott Jamieson, after that it was all Sydney with Cazarine putting two shots over the bar.
Nicky Carle was also guilty of wasting chances, hitting a shot in the 21st minute into the crowd and then having a shot on target deflected over by the desperate Melbourne defence.
The first sign that the game was going back Melbourne's way was when Harry Kewell was given too much room at the far post and shot over.
A couple of minutes later, Brett Emerton departed with a hamstring injury in a blow for Sydney, replaced by Hirofumi Moriyasu.
Moriyasu would create Sydney's best chance of the half on 42 minutes when his mazy run ended with a clever cut back to Karol Kisel, but Ante Covic was equal to the Slovak's shot.
The game then turned on its head on 45 minutes when Matthew Foschini pumped in a cross and Archie Thompson knocked it down for Cernak to pounce.
He finished with aplomb and the home side had a hardly deserved lead.
Brought to life by the goal, Victory then had a second in first-half injury time.
Carlos Hernandez won a free kick on the right-hand side and it was again allowed to bounce in the box.
Fabio picked it up at the far post, went left and then went right to the by line.
His powerful cross was deflected into the net by a helpless Liam Reddy.
Thompson should have iced the points in the first minutes of the second half when given a one-on- one chance against Reddy, but the keeper was allowed to get to the ball and deflect it wide.
Terry McFlynn and Cazarine both had chances to score before a horrible mistake by Covic allowed Cazarine in on 56 minutes.
Carle shot low, the keeper had it and then lost it and the ball was in the net.
Cazarine had plenty more chances to score heading wide on several occasions, while up the other end, Thompson, Marco Rojas and Fabio couldn't beat Reddy.
Rojas had another chance on 82 minutes, but his close range effort went over the bar and was to prove costly.
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