Patrick Kisnorbo saluted the character shown by his players as Melbourne City came from behind to defeat Adelaide United and set up an A-League grand final date with Western United.
City are priced at 1/3 to win the A-League grand final and become the first club in the history of the competition to win the premiership/championship double back-to-back.
Brave fightback
It looked as though it may not be on the cards at one point after Zach Clough had given the Reds the lead in the 48th minute of the game.
But they came roaring back when Marco Tilio equalised in the 74th minute to take the game into extra time. Then Jamie Maclaren stepped up to grab the winner and take them through.
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Kisnorbo has praised the way his players reacted to going a goal behind as they could easily have folded.
"For me it's the character that we showed today for 120 minutes," Kisnorbo told reporters after the game. "There are two ways (it can go after conceding), you either collapse and let just things be or show fight and I think we did that."
Carl Veart proud
Adelaide can take heart from the way they played. Speaking after the game Reds boss Carl Veart praised his players for getting to the semi-finals and running Melbourne close.
"I couldn't be more proud of the boys, they gave everything tonight," Veart said. "It's been a long season and I think in the end we just ran out of petrol. We had some good opportunities in the game to kill it off but that's football."
