Djulbic struck in second-half stoppage time from Peter Perchtold's corner to secure United's passage into the next round of the finals where they'll face Adelaide United at Hindmarsh Stadium.

"I said to Peter 'just put it on the penalty spot' and nodded to him, he nodded back and hit a beautiful ball which we'd been missing all day and I hit it in the top corner," Djulbic told Fox Sports, before adding it was the best moment of his career so far on a football pitch.

Djulbic added Victory goalkeeper Michael Petkovic's impressive game meant United needed something special to clinch the win.

"Petka was brilliant today. He was probably man of the match for the Victory. We knew we had to do something special and it was," he said.

Gold Coast skipper Michael Thwaite was delighted to progress, after the club fell to Newcastle Jets at this stage in the finals last season.

"Obviously going to Adelaide is going to be tough. We respect them but I'm just really happy at the moment to get one step further than last year," Thwaite said.

Thwaite added: "We focused all week on the pressing game, we know they don't like it high up on the field and I think it worked a treat. We had a couple of chances and finally at the end Dino put one away for us.

"I was just hoping it didn't go to 120 minutes because we were all out of breath."

Victory striker Archie Thompson admitted he was disappointed by the defeat but looked ahead to the club's upcoming AFC Champions League campaign.

"We had chances we didn't take, it was a great header by Djulbic, that's just the way it is," Thompson said.

"We've got a game against (Gamba) Osaka in two weeks time so we've got to re-group and obviously try and do well in the ACL. We're all bitterly disappointed."

Thompson also was far from impressed by the state of the Skilled Park surface.

"When you look at the state of the pitch too, both teams have to play on it. I don't know who makes the decisions to play on these sorts of things, but it was disappointing," Thompson said.