Nebojsa Marinkovic’s double put Perth Glory into the FFA Cup final and ended the fairytale run of part-timers Bentleigh Greens in Cheltenham on Tuesday night.

For the second time in three days, a stunning Marinkovic free-kick opened the scoring for the Glory, before the Serb added a second and Chris Harold finished late.

While the scoreline was emphatic, the Victorian grassroots club was not entirely outclassed in the 3-0 loss to the A-League leaders.

The Greens enjoyed strong periods of possession and scoring opportunities but found themselves a touch of class below in front of a capacity 3,300 crowd at the Kingston Heath Soccer Complex.

Despite the second-tier status of their Cup opponents, Glory could not be accused of taking the game less than seriously.

Seven Perth players backed up from the side’s win over Central Coast just 48 hours earlier, with the additional four coming from the bench.

In the opening exchanges, Bentleigh yielded the lion’s share of possession and the Glory ultimately held 69 per cent of possession in the first half.

The Greens caused some trouble with tricky footwork, while Jamie De Abreu and Luke Gallo impressed on the wing, with captain Wayne Wallace and Luke Pilkington in midfield doing their best to contain the Glory.

De Abreu’s cut-back to Gallo presented the Melbourne City youth player with a good chance to open the scoring on 26 minutes but he curled his half-volley wide.

Two minutes later, Glory had their lead.

Wallace’s overzealous challenge on Richard Garcia gave Marinkovic a chance to repeat his A-League stunner from 20 yards.

Bentleigh goalkeeper Alastair Bray gave him the target, standing well to the right of goal, but Marinkovic’s effort could hardly have been sweeter, ricocheting off the crossbar, over the line and into the roof of the net.

A diving save by Bray stopped a blistering Youssouf Hersi strike from putting the Glory further ahead barely five minute later, and the Western Australians maintained their one-goal lead until the break.

Five minutes after half-time, fine work from Glory’s Irish striker Andy Keogh settled the tie.

Keogh outpaced the Bentleigh defence to latch on to a loose ball, cutting back for Marinkovic to slot home.

Two goals down, the Greens upped their effort and enjoyed a strong spell.

Luke O’Dea, Pilkington and Wallace each took turns to fire strongly on Daniel Vukovic’s goal unsuccessfully.

Harold put the result beyond doubt when he put the ball in the back of the net after some nice lead-up work from Marinkovic and Josh Risdon in the 84th minute.

The Glory can look forward to the final on December 16.

Pick up Saturday’s Neos Kosmos for an in depth look the Bentleigh Greens FFA Cup journey and exclusive interviews with the club.

Source: AAP