Melbourne Victory was held to a 0-0 draw by Brisbane Roar in the Isuzu UTE A-League on Tuesday night.
Summary
Victory was unable to find a breakthrough at AAMI Park, keeping a fourth straight clean sheet and extending its unbeaten league run to 10 games.
Tony Popovic’s side looked most threatening early on, but was forced to settle for a point.
Coming into the clash full of confidence, Victory almost made the perfect start, with Ben Folami’s cross from the left just unable to find a desperate Marco Rojas in the fifth minute.
Victory was looking the more likely in attack, but did need a decent save from Ivan Kelava to push away a Juan Lescano strike midway through the first half.
Only last-ditch defending from Roar denied Rojas and Folami around the half-hour mark as Victory continued to look for an opener.
But Jason Geria was needed to block a Jez Lofthouse strike just before half-time and Scott Neville fired inches wide for Brisbane.
There were few chances to begin the second half, although Roderick Miranda did head a Jake Brimmer corner over at the near post approaching the hour-mark.
Nick D’Agostino forced a low save from Brisbane goalkeeper Jordan Holmes in the 66th minute after Jason Davidson was released down the left.
Chris Ikonomidis went close to a breakthrough with 16 minutes remaining, heading a Rojas cross from the right just wide.
Geria made a superb tackle to deny Henry Hore a shot from inside the area in the 82nd minute before Neville powered a header wide.
Brimmer came off late after a collision with Davidson as Victory was held and the spoils shared at AAMI Park.
What they said – Josh Brillante
on the game…
“It was a really frustrating night for us. I’m sure everyone will be very disappointed, I’m very disappointed with that, to not pick up points at home, some crucial points there we’ve missed so we’ll have to pick our heads up and keep working hard for the next game on Saturday.”
on fixtures…
“It’s exhausting at the moment with the schedule, we’ve got game after game, but we have the fitness and we have the squad to keep backing up. I’m not sure exactly what to say about tonight, things just weren’t happening for us, we weren’t playing our normal game so it’s a bit disappointing.”
Player in focus
Geria continued his fine season. The defender made several crucial interventions to help Victory keep another clean sheet.
Implications
While extending its unbeaten run in the league to 10 matches, it was not the result Victory was after. It sits third on the table, three points behind Western United.
Result
Isuzu UTE A-League 2021/22 Round 7
Melbourne Victory 0
Brisbane Roar 0
Melbourne Victory: Kelava (gk); Geria, Hamill, Roderick, Davidson; Marchan (Broxham 57′), Brillante (c) (Kirdar 81′); Rojas (Velupillay 75′), Brimmer (Nigro 90+2′), Folami (Ikonomidis 57′); D’Agostino (Margiotta 75′).
Brisbane Roar: Holmes (gk); Hingert, Neville, Trewin, Olsen (Brindell-South 46′); Hore, Akbari, O’Shea (c), Lofthouse (Parsons 46′); Ivanovic (Daley 64′), Lescano (Dehmie 70′).
Yellow cards: Olsen 32′, Marchan 44′, Broxham 83′, Holmes 87′
Red cards: Nil
Attendance: TBA
Venue: AAMI Park
Next up
Victory’s busy April continues with a trip to Newcastle to face the Jets on Saturday.
