Lleyton Brooks scored a 95th-minute equaliser as Melbourne Victory finished the A-League season with a 1-1 Derby draw against City on Sunday.
Summary
An own goal from Nick Ansell early in the second half put City ahead and Victory looked set for defeat behind closed doors at AAMI Park.
But substitute Brooks delivered an equaliser, lashing in deep into additional time to earn Victory a point.
Victory was pushed back in the opening exchanges, and goalkeeper Matt Acton made a relatively comfortable low save from Marco Tilio’s 20-yard effort in the eighth minute.
Most of Victory’s best early moments came on the counter-attack, with Ben Folami looking particularly dangerous.
But it was a City break that led to a great chance in the 24th minute, only for Acton to make a superb save to deny Tilio in a one-on-one.
Acton stepped up again two minutes later, diving to his right to push away another Tilio strike from inside the area.
Folami tested Tom Glover in the 35th minute, the attacker’s long-range effort forcing a save from the City goalkeeper.
Acton continued his tremendous first half with another save six minutes prior to the break, diving to his right to tip away Aiden O’Neill’s 25-yard strike.
Victory almost opened the scoring on the stroke of half-time as Callum McManaman curled just wide from 20 yards after wonderful work down the left from Folami.
But City opened the scoring nine minutes into the second half as Ansell turned a Naoki Tsubaki cross past Acton.
Folami powered a first-time effort from 20 yards wide just moments later after being set up by Elvis Kamsoba.
Victory had another great opportunity on the hour-mark as Rudy Gestede fired over from inside the area after more great work down the left from Folami.
Another chance fell to Gestede three minutes later, the striker denied by Glover after the City goalkeeper could only parry a long-range effort from Jacob Butterfield.
Butterfield tested Glover again in the 80th minute before Anthony Lesiotis had a late strike for City ruled out for offside.
And Brooks capitalised, smashing in after a scramble from a Butterfield corner to earn a point for Victory.
Player in focus
Key moment
What they said – Brooks
on the game…
“It was a very important game for us. We needed to secure a point after last night’s Newcastle game. It was important for the club, we needed that. Steve (Kean) said in the change room that we just need to fight, give everything, he had the belief that we’d win the game. It was good.”
on earning a point…
“We’re very motivated. Obviously you never want to finish last in the league. We needed to get a point and everything we could do in that game we needed to put through and came out with a point which was good.”
Result
Hyundai A-League 2020/21
Melbourne Victory 1 (Lleyton Brooks 90+5′)
City 1 (Nick Ansell 54′ og)
Melbourne Victory: Acton (gk); Roux, Broxham (c), Ansell, Traore; Butterfield, Brimmer (Barnett 45′); Kamsoba (Brooks 73′), McManaman (Kruse 73′), Folami (Velupillay 73′); Gestede.
City: Glover (gk); Galloway, Reis, Griffiths, Jamieson (c); Luna, O’Neill, Berenguer (Lesiotis 88′); Tsubaki (Garuccio 62′), Tilio, Raphael (Caputo 83′).
Yellow cards: Roux 49′, Traore 50′, O’Neill 72′
Red cards: Nil
Attendance: N/A
Venue: AAMI Park
