Melbourne City became the first A-League team to take points off of Auckland FC on Sunday evening, earning a share of the spoils in a contest that finished 2-2.
Medin Memeti’s second senior goal and first at home got us off to a good start before Auckland answered in the second half – a pair of goalkeeping errors then evening each other out.
Team News
As flagged by Aurelio Vidmar when speaking with media pre-match, it was just the one change to the XI that comfortably took care of Brisbane on the road last week.
Medin Memeti returned to lead the line and Arion Sulemani moved to the bench as a result.
Starting XI: 33. Patrick BEACH (GK), 13. Nathaniel ATKINSON, 27. Kai TREWIN, 26. Samuel SOUPRAYEN, 16. Aziz BEHICH (C), 8. Jimmy JEGGO, 6. Steven UGARKOVIC, 30. Andreas KUEN, 10. Yonatan COHEN, 38. Harry POLITIDIS, 35. Medin MEMETI.
Substitutes: 1. Jamie YOUNG (GK), 19. Zane SCHREIBER, 20. Arion SULEMANI, 22. Germán FERREYRA, 47. Kavian RAHMANI,
What happened?
Neither team could muster up a shot in the first 15 minutes in what was a ‘feeling out’ period. The visitors were the first to register an effort on goal as a Jake Brimmer free kick – which Patrick Beach seemed to have well covered – sailed just over the bar.
A minute later, it was a lovely team move that saw us score the opener after Yonatan Cohen first forced a good save out of Alex Paulsen.
Harry Politidis picked up the scraps and recycled to a waiting Aziz Behich outside the box, the City skipper then dinking a lovely ball in behind for Andreas Kuen.
The Austrian midfielder read the situation perfectly and fired a ball to the near post where Memeti met the cross with an expert outside-of-the-foot finish which went through Paulsen’s legs and in off the woodwork.
Other than a late curling attempt from Atkinson, we didn’t have too many looks at goal, but the first half was still played completely on our terms as the City defence didn’t give an inch to the league leaders.
Seemingly a tale of two halves, the visitors looked the better outfit for large parts of the second 45.
Guillermo May headed home an equalised just minutes into the second half to get things quickly back on level terms following the break.
Both teams had the ball in back of the net either side of the 70th minute, although neither goal would stand as they were correctly ruled out due to offside.
Just moments after the visitors thought they’d taken the lead the game turned completely on its head, Paulsen misjudging a back pass and helplessly watching it roll into his own net.
Substitutes Callum Talbot and Ben Mazzeo almost had the perfect linkup to seal the three points, but the cross from the former was just out of the reach of the latter as it agnoisngly rolled out for a goal kick.
Unfortunately with just a couple of minutes remaining until full time, Jake Brimmer was able to find a way past Beach from a free-kick to net an equaliser and ensure the points were shared.
What’s next?
We’ll be back at AAMI Park next Saturday, although will be the away side as we face Melbourne Victory in the second Derby of the season.
