Hundreds of Sydney FC fans invaded the pitch when captain Alex Brosque hammered home the match-winner in an explosive 3-2 A-League derby win over the Western Sydney Wanderers on Saturday night at Allianz Stadium.

The wobbly Wanderers blew a 2-0 lead to sink to their second straight loss to open the season and will quickly need to pick up the pieces before next Saturday’s landmark opening leg of the Asian Champions League (ACL) final.

Western Sydney’s Brazilian import Vitor Saba was red-carded in the 69th minute with the score deadlocked at 2-2 and, 11 minutes later, prodigal son Brosque marked his return to Sydney FC with a clinical finish to complete an epic comeback.

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In front of a record crowd of 41,213 – the biggest at Allianz for a regular-season game in any code – a brilliant occasion was again marred by an unsavoury incident.

Last season it was a racial vilification allegation from Sydney’s Ali Abbas against Wanderers’ striker Brendon Santalab.

This time it was an outrageous pitch invasion, when hundreds of supporters from Sydney FC supporter area The Cove jumped the fence following Brosque’s goal and mobbed celebrating players.

Western Sydney fans threw flares onto the field before kick-off, but the potential dangers of a swarm of people rushing the playing surface is a major concern for the A-League.

Sydney FC had the better of the early exchanges, but two goals in five minutes put the Wanderers up 2-0 after 24 minutes and it seemed last week’s 4-1 demolition at the hands of Melbourne Victory was just an aberration.

Mark Bridge hammered home the first against his old club, and then a keeping howler from Sydney goal-saver Vedran Janjetovic left the home side reeling.

However, the game swung on the stroke of halftime, with Sydney young gun Corey Gameiro scoring his second goal in as many weeks to bring the Sky Blues back within reach.

When a fired-up Sasa Ognenovski – who pushed the boundaries with the match officials all night – scored the equaliser, a classic Sydney derby was in the making.

The turning point came when Wanderers’ attacking midfielder Saba – to that point his side’s best player – went flying in on Sydney’s Terry Antonis with studs up and was given a straight red.

“It changed the game obviously,” said Wanderers keeper Ante Covic.

“2-2 with a man down gave them the sense to go forward and that was our worst period and we couldn’t hold on. It’s disappointing.”

Tensions flared, but Sydney got down to business and Brosque – back this year from his stint overseas – made the most of sustained pressure on Covic’s goal.

“This is what football has become in this country,” said Brosque of the atmosphere.

“Unbelievable – I’ve been looking forward to it for a long time, heard about it from players and fans and it definitely lived up to it.”

The Wanderers’ season started amid such hype, after they qualified for the ACL final against Saudi side Al-Hilal.

But now coach Tony Popovic has a mini-crisis on his hands, with his team guilty of defensive lapses and a lack of punch.

It’s the second successive derby loss for Wanderers – on both occasions, they’ve let leads slip.

AAP