A memorable second-half comeback led City to a 2-1 win over Sydney FC at AAMI Park on Saturday night, marking the ninth time this season the team has rallied from behind to earn points.
Mariana Speckmaier’s world-class strike levelled the score at 1-1 just seconds into the second period, before Bryleeh Henry clinched the three points with a goal in the final minute of regulation time.
Following his side’s second-half comeback, Michael Matricciani spoke to the media.
Read his post-match thoughts below…
WORLD-CLASS EQUALISER
“Specky [Mariana Speckmaier] comes with that magic in the first minute [of the second-half], which changes the whole dynamic of the game, and then I think from there we dominated and were deserved winners. I’m also really for Bryleeh to get her first goal in a whole and score the winner for us.
“Momentum is a big thing and sometimes in in these games when it’s really tight, you need your big players to stand up and do something special and she’s definitely done that a few times this year for us.
“Thankfully she did it again. And then, I think we’ve got control of the match after that and we dominated. It was just trying to unlock the tight defence and eventually we did that, so very pleasing.”
MCKENNA MAGIC
“We left her on because she has one of those moments in her [lead up to Bryleeh’s winner], the weight of pass is outstanding, to bring it to her right hand side to then play the reverse to the left side was excellent.
“When you play against good sides, and they are a very good side, the position on the table doesn’t reflect how good they are as a team, you need a moment, you need two or three moments to create a good opening, and that was definitely it and it was a great feeling.
GAME SAVING CHALLENGE
“They’re goals, they’re worth goals [on Rebekah Stott’s late challenge to deny Sydney at 1-1].
“She did one last week against Newcastle when it was 0-0, where she’s cleared one off the line which was a clear goal.
“She’s been struggling all week with illness and she got a knock in the first-half as well, but she’s a typical captain, a warrior that keeps going. Never gives up. Leads by example. And to answer your questions, I didn’t doubt for one second that she’d be able to take that off the girl.”
INTERNATIONAL BREAK
“I felt the resilience of today was excellent. It’s a massive three points for us today. We have a couple of days off now and then we’re back into training with a friendly on Friday.
“Our goal is not to be undefeated. Our goal is to win the Premier’s Plate. Our main goal is to win each moment and you need to win each moment to win each game.”
