Melbourne Victory have cemented their place in the top four of the National Youth League with a 2-0 win away to Brisbane Roar at Ballymore Stadium.
Melbourne Victory have cemented their place in the top four of the National Youth League with a 2-0 win away to Brisbane Roar at Ballymore Stadium.
Nathan Elasi continued his good form in front of goal to open the scoring midway through the first half before Tedros Yabio wrapped up the points with a goal on the break two minutes from time.
The win caps off a good run of results for the Victory, who relied on a solid rearguard performance as the hosts pressed hard for an equaliser during the second half.
Elasi put the visitors on the front foot on 20 minutes when he broke free of the offside trap and raced away to bury a left-footed drive past Matt Acton in the Roar goal.
Brisbane nearly found the perfect reply eight minutes later as Michael Zullo had a volley cleared off the line after a deflection off Isaka Cernak took the ball around the Victory goalkeeper.
Minutes later Tim Smits tried his luck from the edge of the area, but Sebastian Mattei was down quickly to his left to keep the ball out.
Elasi had a chance to double his tally with a similar chance to his earlier goal, but this time he put the effort off target.
Mattei made two good saves in quick succession to preserve Melbourne’s lead heading into the break, first palming a Smits left-footer onto the post, before a fingertip save kept Matt Mundy’s looping header out of the net from the resulting corner.
The Victory should have doubled the advantage immediately after the break when Elasi lost his marker and got on the end of a pinpoint cross from Aziz Behich but his header from close range went wide.
Zullo sent a volley flashing wide for the Roar, before Behich blazed over for the visitors after working his way into the box.
As the second half wore on Brisbane began to dictate the play and created some good chances.
Alistair Quinn headed wide from a corner on 66 minutes, followed ten minutes later by another save by Mattei from Smits.
The Roar striker got on the end of some good build-up play from Cernak, but his low drive was kept out by the keeper’s legs.
But the hosts were punished on the counter two minutes from time when Yabio broke free of the defence and smashed the ball home.
Brisbane Roar 0
Melbourne 1 (Elasi 20′, Tedros Yabio 88′)
