It took Victory more than an hour to crack the home side in front of a capacity crowd at Kingston Heath Soccer Complex. 

Marco Rojas (64') stabbed the ball home to put Kevin Muscat's men in front before an effort by James Troisi took a massive deflection to double the lead (68').

Meanwhile, a 10-man Canberra Olympic held off Green Gully to continue their magic Cup run with a 1-0 penalty win at the death.

Futsalroo and goalkeeper Angelo Konstantinou thumped home the penalty (94') to ensure Olympic became the only non A-League side through to the next round of the national knockout comp.

Both teams join Sydney FC and Melbourne City in the Semi Finals of the Cup.

Bentleigh Greens 0

Melbourne Victory 2 (Rojas 64', Troisi 68')

Kingston Heath

Defending cup holders, Victory, went into this Melbourne derby as red hot favourites and the Greens took about 20 minutes to get a toehold in the match.

It was always a big ask to expect the NPL Victorian heavyweights to fashion an upset over their A-League opponents, but the State side came into the contest with good pedigree.

The 2014 semi-finalists surged into this quarter final clash off two hard-fought away wins over the MetroStars and Devonport and pulled a big crowd for their home encounter against Victory

In front of 3754 fans - including Socceroos coach Ange Postecoglou - goals from Marco Rojas and James Troisi got the A-League side over the line to continue their mission for back-to-back cup titles.

Victory had the first chance of the game after 12 minutes when Rojas and Mitch Austin combined, but the Kiwi’s shot was saved by Ryan Scott.

Bentleigh pressed the favourites 10 minutes later when new father Tyson Holmes dispossessed Carl Valeri resulting in a shot deflecting out for a corner.

With plenty on the the line and the scoreboard still goalless, tempers boiled over between players as both Green's Ross Archibald and Valeri went into the book.

After a cagey first half the game came alive after the hour mark after Rojas’ cross caused pandemonium in the box as Alan Baro and Besart Berisha were scrambling to get it over the line to no avail.

Victory would get their goal three minutes later courtesy of Rojas who was teed up by Ollie Bozanic to put them up 1-0.

Victory doubled their lead at the 68th minute after Troisi’s shot at goal took a deflection off Troy Ruthven, which momentarily struck the crossbar only to land in the back of the net.

The momentum was all with Victory as they continued to surge forward, Berisha had a shot on target with 10 minutes to go but was held by Scott.

At the 85th minute when Rojas nearly iced the game from short range only to have his shot beaten away by Scott.

In the final minute Berisha found the upright, but it did not matter as Victory prevailed 2-0 to send them into the final four of the cup and now look forward to their Round 1 A-League clash against Brisbane Roar away next Saturday.

 

 

Canberra Olympic 1 (Konstantinou 94') 

Green Gully 0

Deakin Reserve

Canberra Olympic were reduced to 10 men on the hour when Adam Rogic, brother of Socceroo Tom Rogic, was given his marching orders for a second yellow.

But a penalty at the death saw the home side prevail.

Olympic were under the pump from Gully for most of the match and were perhaps fortunate to go into the break on level-pegging.

But in their 60th year the Canberra outfit showed true grit to bring an end to giant-slayers Gully.

Arthur Papas' men had knocked off A-League outfit Central Coast Mariners as well as Melbourne Knights but lacked the cut-through on the night and were undone by a sucker punch.