Melbourne City suffered a disappointing first loss of the A-League Men’s season in Saturday night’s Melbourne Derby.
Early goals to Victory made it seem like we were in for a long night before Andrew Nabbout’s second half goal breathed some life back into the contest.
Team News
Aurelio Vidmar made just the one forced change to his XI following Jimmy Jeggo’s suspension.
Kai Trewin moved further up the pitch to fill the hole in midfield, as Germán Ferreyra slotted into defence for his first City start.
Starting XI: 33. Patrick BEACH (GK), 2. Callum TALBOT, 22. Germán FERREYRA, 26. Samuel SOUPRAYEN, 16. Aziz BEHICH, 27. Kai TREWIN, 6. Steven UGARKOVIC, 13. Nathaniel ATKINSON, 10. Yonatan COHEN, 23. Marco TILIO, 15. Andrew NABBOUT.
Substitutes: 1. Jamie YOUNG (GK), 19. Zane SCHREIBER, 20. Arion SULEMANI, 30. Andreas KUEN, 38. Harry POLITIDIS, 42. Ben DUNBAR, 47. Kavian RAHMANI.
What happened?
Things couldn’t have gotten off to a worse start for City, 3-0 down inside the first half an hour of action.
While the scoreline made for grim reading, slowly but surely City managed to get a foothold back in general play.
Andrew Nabbout had a couple of chances after getting through on goal but wasn’t able to make Jack Duncan work in between the sticks.
Callum Talbot was almost a surprise goalscorer late in the half, firing a cracking strike towards goal which Duncan did well to parry away.
City came out looking the better outfit in the second 45, desperate to get some respectability back in the scoreline.
Yonatan Cohen was one of City’s most influential players and played a key hand in our sole goal on the night which came in the 64th minute.
After cutting inside and shifting the ball onto his left, the winger shot from range and forced a save out of Duncan. Following in expertly, Nabbout was in the right spot at the right time to tuck home the follow-up.
With half an hour still on the clock and the momentum seemingly going all City’s way in the second half, a sense of excitement began to build around AAMI Park with the unlikely chance of a comeback.
Unfortunately though it would never really materialise. Substitute Arion Sulemani forced Duncan into a great save in the 92nd minute but other than that, the Victory keeper was never seriously tested.
What’s next?
City will have plenty of time to refine things on the training pitch next week, not in action again until Melbourne Cup Eve.
That clash will be an away fixture against Western United, with venue details expected to be locked in very soon.
