SYDNEY FC gatecrashed Melbourne City’s coming-out party with a dramatic 3-1 FFA Cup victory in Ballarat.

Two controversial penalties, both cooly converted by Ali Abbas, within the space of three extra time minutes consigned City to the FFA Cup exit door - its next competitive fixture now not until a return date with Sydney at Allianz Stadium in Round 1 of the A-League season on October 11.

The night was meant to be all about the Manchester City-owned club and its first game since being rebranded from Melbourne Heart.

But instead it was the start of the Graham Arnold era at Sydney which was crowned with a well deserved win in front of 2801 fans at a chilly Morshead Park.

City goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne was left red-faced in the 23rd minute when his decision to charge off his line gifted Corey Gameiro the opening goal.

media_camera Ali Abbas of Sydney celebrates with team-mates.

Aaron Mooy’s pinpoint free kick in the 64th minute found the head of Nick Kalmar on the edge of the six-yard box to level the scores, before City somehow withstood a late Sydney barrage to take the match to extra time.

The game appeared destined to be settled by penalties and ultimately it was - just 10 minutes earlier than everybody thought.

Gameiro was played in behind City’s defensive line and his pace proved too much for Jason Hoffman, who was adjudged by referee Shaun Evans to have brought down the 21-year-old while in a genuine goal scoring position.

media_camera Corey Gameiro (L) of Sydney FC celebrates after scoring the first goal.

Hoffman was sent from the field before Abbas stood up to take the 111th minute penalty, which he struck hard and low in to the bottom right corner.

Victory would be a formality from then on for the visitors, but they and Evans rubbed further salt in to the City wound when a second spot kick was awarded in the 114th minute, this time after Rob Wielaert was penalised for bringing down Terry Antonis.

Abbas, again, made no mistake.

media_camera Supporters watch from the crowd during a freezing night in Ballarat.

“The match was close. After 90 minutes, if you’re at 1-1, you go in to extra time and that says enough,” Melbourne City coach John van ‘t Schip said.

“The game was decided in a moment where we got a good chance to score to make it 2-1 and on the counter they actually made it 2-1 with the penalty.

“It was offside. From what I could see Jason hit (Gameiro) maybe from behind, I couldn’t see it very clearly, but the main thing was that before that it was clearly offside.

“That’s how football is. Mistakes are made and that’s how a game gets decided.”

Arnold’s impact on the Sky Blues is already clear.

media_camera Nick Kalmar of City celebrates after scoring his team’s goal.

Sydney has never been a team known for its defensive solidarity, but already it has the hallmarks of a group that will be very hard to break down this season.

But how Arnold’s men didn’t win the game in the last 15 minutes of regulation time still perplexes.

The Sky Blues had at least six genuine chances to score as Redmayne went a long way to atoning for his earlier mistake.

Bernie Ibini hit the post with one shot and had another deflected off a defender, but Gameiro, Chris Naumoff and Ali Abbas all spurned chances.

FFA Cup: Round of 32 Matchday Three