Arthur Diles was delighted with the relentless performance his team delivered in their Melbourne Derby triumph.
Under the lights at AAMI Park, Melbourne Victory beat Melbourne City 1-3 to pull five points clear of their local rivals and into fifth place on the ladder.
It was the team’s second win of the 2025/26 season in the fixture, and they were excellent value for the Isuzu UTE A-League maximum, with Max Caputo’s equaliser the only negative on an otherwise perfect Saturday night showing.
Speaking during his post-match press conference, Diles reflected on how his team learnt from last week’s misstep in drawing with Brisbane Roar, ensuring they pressed on to take the derby bragging rights.
“Last week, that wasn’t the case, and it cost us. We wanted to learn from that mistake, we wanted to improve on that. In the first half, credit to them, because they come back into a game, because they’re a quality team. But I think before that, it could be two or three, and it’s probably lights out, but it’s not.
“At half-time, we addressed that, we spoke about that we didn’t want to make the same mistake. We want to show growth as a team.
“If you don’t fight, you don’t give yourself the best chance. And that was the most rewarding thing for me, that we showed incredible fight for 90 minutes.”
In a strong team performance, player of the match Juan Mata was once again the standout for Victory, netting twice and recording an assist.
He incredibly scored from 40 yards during the first half, wiped out City’s leveller with another special strike in the second 45, his third of the season, before expertly laying on the third for substitute Santos, who netted his fifth of the campaign.
“I’m just really happy that he scored, because he’s hit posts and crossbars. Keepers have made fantastic saves on him. Yes, he’s given a great amount of assists, but I’ve been hoping, deep inside I’m thinking, ‘Come on, you’ve got to score more goals too because you’re worth it and you deserve it’.
“Tonight was beautiful to see that he was able to give an outstanding assist and score two amazing goals.
“More importantly, he does his job within the team to work extremely hard.”
Watch Diles’ full press conference below.
