As another season draws to its climax, Melbourne City FC will once again be there on the last day.
For the third consecutive year, City will play off in the Grand Final, this time around taking on Western United in what is set to be the first All-Melbourne decider in A-Leagues history.
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‘History’ is probably the best word to sum up Saturday night too. No matter what the result, history will be created with Western vying for a Championship for the first time while City seek to do what no A-Leagues team has done before.
A City win would see it crowned back-to-back Premiers and Champions, a fitting reward for what has been a dominant couple of seasons for Patrick Kisnorbo’s men.
The team won its way into Saturday’s Victorian showdown with a hard-fought Semi Final victory over Adelaide United. Following a scoreless draw away from home in the midweek leg, City were put on the back-foot in the 48th minute when the first goal of the tie finally came.
Down but not out, City fought hard to equalise through game-changing substitute Marco Tilio with little over a quarter hour to play in the 90. Extra time was needed to decide it, and who else would stand up other than the Club’s all-time leading scorer, Jamie Maclaren, who was in the right spot to bury the winner and send City to another Grand Final.
Western did it the hard way too, but would eventually come away 4-2 winners on aggregate over another cross-town rival. The team in green and black trailed following the first leg, and again at half-time of the second, before putting in a blistering three-goal second half to secure qualification to their first Grand Final.
On the night they were led by Serbian striker Aleksander Prijovic, one of the most in-form players in the league, who found himself on the scoresheet twice while also assisting another.
Curtis Good and Nuno Reis are set to be the men tasked with keeping him quiet and the central-defensive duo will go in with plenty of confidence. City conceded just once over 210 Semi Finals minutes, and the goal it did concede was a classy finish that not many defences in world football could’ve stopped.
Up the other end of the pitch, the likes of Jamie Maclaren, Mathew Leckie and Andrew Nabbout look ready to fire on the big stage.
Maclaren has the extra motivation of missing last season’s decider due to hotel quarantine, and comes in hot having scored in four of City’s last six games, including the goal to send us to the Grand Final. Leckie comes in off a man of the match second leg performance, while Nabbout too had a strong game and provided a nice assist for Tilio’s equaliser.
It’s also going be a night of mixed emotions as one of our own, Connor Metcalfe, is set for his final game in a City shirt.
Having joined the Club at 15, Metcalfe has gone on to have a great career with City and picked up accolade after accolade over the past few seasons. There’s no doubt he and all City fans would love to see him end his time with the Club holding up one last piece of silverware on Saturday night.
Match Details
A-League Men: Grand Final
Saturday 28 May, 7:45pm kick-off
AAMI Park
