Melbourne City will face Sydney FC for the third time in four years in the Westfield FFA Cup on Wednesday. We look back at the clashes between the sides in the cup competition with the ledger sitting at one win a piece.
2014 Round of 32 – Tuesday 12, Morshead Stadium, Ballarat
In the Club’s first competitive match as Melbourne City, John van’t Schip’s side took on the Sydneysiders in the exciting first edition of the FFA Cup.
Both sides came out of the blocks early with chances and it was Sydney who struck first through Corey Gameiro.
A speculative cross-field pass saw Andrew Redmayne exit his penalty area, being beaten to the ball by the quick winger near the touchline.
Gameiro’s long-range lob into an empty net was on target, opening the scoring in Ballarat.
City would have their reply early in the second half as Nick Kalmar scored his only headed goal for the Club, latching onto a pinpoint Aaron Mooy set piece.
The match headed into extra time and City’s hopes for a first win were dashed with two Ali Abbas penalties securing the 3-1 result either side of the break, seeing the Sydneysiders draw first blood between the sides in the cup but arguably not the most important.
2016 FFA Cup Final – Wednesday 30 November, AAMI Park, Melbourne
The sides would meet again in the big dance at AAMI Park with City coming off a morale-boosting Melbourne Derby win and Graham Arnold’s side unbeaten, starting an incredible run towards the Premiership-Championship double.
This match had more of a cup feel to it with both sides cautious in the approach during the opening half.
City set the tone early with their high press frustrating Sydney, most notably Luke Brattan collecting Michael Zullo in front of the Sydney bench, igniting the contest.
City went in with the momentum at the break – with chances to Tim Cahill and Fernando Brandan – but remained level in front of a raucous City crowd.
The breakthrough came after 51 minutes as a wonderful ball from Ivan Franjic found the head of Cahill as his perfectly weighted header across Danny Vukovic had the keeper rooted to the spot, opening the scoring.
A tense 40 minutes ensued with Sydney keeping City honest with a range of chances to equalise but it wasn’t enough as the home side lifted its first piece of Senior Men’s silverware.
2017 Quarter Final – Wednesday 13 September, Leichhardt Oval, Sydney
In Sydney’s first home FFA Cup match three years, Graham Arnold’s side will be looking for redemption from last year’s cup final but for City, the allure of defeating their rival once again and keeping their back-to-back FFA Cup hopes alive will drive them during the contest.
