Melbourne Victory suffered a 3-0 loss to Sydney FC in the Hyundai A-League on Friday.
Summary
Goals from Adam le Fondre, Kosta Barbarouses and Alexander Baumjohann at AAMI Park saw Victory fall to defeat.
Once again, Victory had its chances and should have drawn level early in the second half, before Barbarouses and Baumjohann sealed Sydney’s win.
Baumjohann and Victory stalwart Leigh Broxham were sent off in additional time.
Victory made a decent start, creating two opportunities inside the opening 10 minutes.
Ola Toivonen forced a save from Andrew Redmayne with a 25-yard free-kick before Migjen Basha also tested the Sydney goalkeeper.
At the other end, Alex Wilkinson headed a Baumjohann set-piece wide before Le Fondre missed a good chance.
Sydney took the lead in the 27th minute when Le Fondre tapped in a Baumjohann pass.
Victory goalkeeper Lawrence Thomas made two strong saves before half-time, denying Luke Brattan and Milos Ninkovic as the host trailed 1-0 at the break.
The host should have been level just after half-time, but Toivonen headed a Robbie Kruse cross over from close range.
Kruse drew a diving save from Redmayne moments later before Elvis Kamsoba blazed over.
Instead, Sydney doubled its lead through Barbarouses, who poked in a Le Fondre cross in the 53rd minute.
Basha fired an effort wide from distance in the 77th minute before Andrew Nabbout forced another straightforward save from Redmayne.
But Sydney sealed its win late on, Baumjohann side-footing in after a pass from Ninkovic.
Baumjohann was shown a straight red card in additional time, while Broxham picked up his second yellow.
Player in focus
What they said – Nabbout
on the game…
“That’s why they’re top of the league. They waited for us to make an error and pounced on it and they’ve got obviously the quality to finish them off and it’s what they’ve been doing all season and it’s what they did again tonight. I guess we started off well, first half we were pretty solid, we created a couple of chances, but I think we weren’t clinical in front of goal again and we allowed them to pounce on our mistakes and capitalise.”
on upcoming games…
“I just think we need to keep the same attitude we did in the first half. We were pretty solid in the first half and in the second half against Adelaide a few weeks ago we were really good and against Bali we were top class as well. We just need to do more of the same, keep our bodies fresh and recovered, obviously there are games coming thick and fast now especially with all the travel, we just need to make sure we keep everyone on the park and put in solid performances and try and grind out some results.”
Result
Hyundai A-League 2019/20 Round 16
Melbourne Victory 0
Sydney FC 3 (Adam le Fondre 27′, Kosta Barbarouses 53′, Alexander Baumjohann 85′)
Melbourne Victory: Thomas (gk); Roux, Carrigan, Broxham, Traore; Basha, Lesiotis (Lauton 73′); Nabbout, Kruse, Kamsoba (Hope 84′); Toivonen (c) (Athiu 73′).
Sydney FC: Redmayne (gk); Grant, McGowan, Wilkinson (c), King; Baumjohann, Brattan, Retre (Caceres 73′), Ninkovic (Van Der Saag 89′); Barbarouses (Ivanovic 80′), Le Fondre.
Yellow cards: McGowan 7′, Broxham 19’/90+4′, Kruse 35′, Brattan 63′, Basha 76′
Red cards: Baumjohann 90+4′, Broxham 90+4′
Attendance: 17,814
Venue: AAMI Park
Next up
Victory makes the trip to face the Kashima Antlers in the AFC Champions League play-off round on Tuesday, January 28.
