Melbourne City Captain Rebekah Stott has praised her team’s fight and resilience after a heart-breaking Semi-Final defeat on Sunday.
City’s 2024/25 A-League Women’s campaign came to an agonising end at the ctrl:cyber Pitch, falling to the Central Coast Mariners in the last seconds of extra-time.
Despite playing majority of the match with 10 players following an early red card to Lourdes Bosch, City displayed immense resilience and character, qualities that have defined a record-breaking regular season.
Stott was full of praise for her teammates after a gallant effort that saw them fall just short of a place in the Grand Final.
“To go down to 10 players so early in the game, to lose Holly in the first few minutes, it hurts us,” Stott reflected. “It was all against us from that point, but I couldn’t be prouder of this group of girls. How we continued to fight, we stayed in it, we didn’t concede many chances, and we nearly got to the end of extra-time.”
“We fought for over 100 minutes with one less player and showed our mentality and togetherness, I honestly couldn’t be prouder.”
“At the end of the day that’s football, it’s disappointing to lose in that way but again just super proud of this group.”
City’s tactical adaptability was also on full display, shifting from their usual possession-based style to a disciplined defensive structure after going a player down.
“We showed great character today, we’re usually a team that has the ball a lot but to sit in a block for the whole game, it’s tough,” Stott said “We knew that we could exploit them on transition, we don’t often do that much, but we never lost belief.”
While the Championship dream may have ended, City’s historic campaign included an unbeaten run to the Premiers Plate, cementing their spot in A-Leagues history.
But there’s still plenty to play for.
Attention now turns to the AFC Women’s Champions League, where Melbourne City will represent Australia on the continental stage. Michael Matricciani’s side are set to face Incheon Red Angels on Wednesday 21 May in Wuhan, China, in a Semi-Final showdown.
“It’s been an incredible season, but we’re not done yet. We can now turn all our focus to the AFC Women’s Champions League Semi-Final and give everything to that special competition.
“We’ve got a terrific bunch of girls, we’ll regroup, and we’ll go again.”
