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          Sydney FC and Adelaide United progress to the FFA Cup round of 16

          • Cronan Yu
          Aug 5, 2015, 10:58 PM ET

          Adelaide United proved to be a class above minnows Darwin Olympic as they opened their FFA Cup title defence with a comfortable 6-1 win at Darwin Football Stadium on Wednesday night.

          The stakes were undoubtedly high coming into the fixture. Darwin's encounter marked a historic moment for football in the Northern Territory as Steve Lolais' side became the first Territory side to compete in the nation-wide competition.

          Meanwhile, the match also marked Adelaide United's first fixture since Josep Gombau's shock departure a little less than two weeks ago, with former Barcelona midfielder Guillermo Amor subsequently taking over the reins of the club.

          There was very little to separate both sides in the opening stages with some pulsating end-to-end play in the opening 10 minutes whereby neither team were able to gain foothold in the match.

          All of Olympic's good work thus far in the match soon came undone in the 17th minute when Marcelo Carrusca made no mistake from the penalty spot after Billy Kathopoulis cynically brought down Osama Malik to give the Reds the lead.

          Given the tempo of the match, it was perhaps unsurprising when Darwin equalised seconds later when talisman Michael Tsounias made use of a defensive lapse at the back to coolly slot past on-rushing Adelaide custodian Eugene Galekovic.

          Despite some excellent goalkeeping from Kane McAdam to keep Amor's troops at bay, Olympic crumbled shortly before half-time when James Jeggo scored off a Michael Marrone cross from the right flank before securing a brace seconds later off a header to ensure that Adelaide United would head into the break with a comfortable lead.

          A late triplet of goals in the second half effectively sealed Darwin Olympic's fate when last year's FFA Cup final hero Sergio Cirio cut into the box and unleashed an unstoppable shot into the top right-hand corner in the 78th minute, new signing Eli Babalj followed up with another soon after by marking his competitive debut for the club with a close-range finish into the bottom corner and slotted home in the 81st minute to hand The Reds a thumping victory.

          Meanwhile, Sydney FC ensured their FFA Cup campaign got off to a perfect start with a 1-0 win over Sorrento FC to progress to the round of 16.

          The Sky Blues began the match well when Shane Smeltz scored from the penalty spot two minutes into the match to become the highest goal-scorer ever at nib Stadium, after Lewis Hall was brought down by Robert Stambolziev just inside the area.

          Eventually, Sydney sealed the win in front of 3,500 strong crowd in the 75th minute when a Chris Naumoff pass into the box found starlet Max Burgess, who nonchalantly made a run into space behind the defence before unleashing a shot into bottom right corner.

          The bad run of results for the Western Australian outfits on Wednesday continued with Perth SC dumped out of the competition after a 3-1 defeat to the Rockdale City Suns.

          The hosts suffered an early setback when Mitsuhiro Iwamoto was taken off after being injured in the 19th minute, but responded in style two minutes later when Toufic Alameddine guided a shot past Francis Soale.

          They then doubled their lead minutes shy from half-time when Dylan Macallister headed home off Alameddine's cross in the 43rd minute to ensure Rockdale headed into the break with a comfortable lead.

          Marko Jesic then added a third in the 58th minute before Clark Keltie bagged a consolation goal from the spot in the 71st minute after Dean Evans was brought down in the box.

          In South Australia, Lions FC secured a narrow 2-1 victory over Croydon Kings.

          The visitors hit the lead in the 14th minute when Shoheel Khan fired a shot into the top left corner from the corner of the box before doubling the lead three minutes into the second half with Andre Bonotto scoring from the spot.

          Croydon midfielder Luke Klimek managed to pull a goal back in 66th minute but it was a case of too little too late as the Lions progressed to the last 16.