Melbourne Victory fell 2-0 to the Wanderers in Western Sydney on Wednesday night in mid-week A-League Men action.
Summary
An eventful second half sparked the game to life following a lacklustre opening 45 minutes at CommBank Stadium.
Ivan Kelava kept out the only real chance of the opening half in the 44th minute with a diving save to keep scores level heading into the sheds.
But Victory couldn’t keep the Wanderers at bay after the break.
Terry Antonis looked like scoring the opener in the 46th minute before the pass in was ruled out of touch.
It only took nine more minutes before Tate Russell headed in to make it 1-0 from a well-timed cross into the box which caught Victory offguard.
Ben Folami had a penalty call waved off in the 65th minute as the away side looked to work their way back into the contest.
A fresh attack of Robbie Kruse, Nick D’Agostino and Marco Rojas entered the match for the final 20 minutes as Tony Popovic searched for the equaliser.
Despite the fresh legs, it was the Wanderers who struck again in the 80th minute when Bernie Ibini was awarded a penalty after colliding with Ivan Kelava, with Petratos finishing the spot kick.
Victory’s best chance of the night came in the 83rd minute when Chris Ikonomidis was unlucky not to be awarded a penalty after a questionable challenge from the Wanderers’ defence.
Rojas also created a late chance when he found Matt Spiranovic’s head from a set-piece in the dying moments of regular time.
What they said – Broxham
on the result…
“We need to do better. They created two or three moments and scored two goals from them, we had two or three moments and didn’t take them.”
“It’s about those key moments and keeping concentration, and tonight they took those.”
on the team’s performances since the FFA Cup Final…
“We’ve done absolutely everything we can for these last three games, we’re leaving no stone unturned.”
“Things will turn for us. We’ve got a game in three days so it’s good we don’t have to wait.”
on rebounding from the loss…
“We believe in what we’re doing. Everyone believes in what we’re doing.”
“We’ll keep working and doing everything we can. We’ll recover well and do everything right. There’s expectations to keep winning and we’ve got to deliver on that.”
Player in focus
Will Wilson made his A-League Men debut off the bench and provided a spark late in the match.
Implications
Victory sits sixth on the table after the loss, but with at least one game in hand over three teams above them.
Result
Isuzu UTE A-League 2021/22 Round 15
Western Sydney Wanderers 2 (Russell 55′, Petratos 80′)
Melbourne Victory 0
Yellow cards: Kelava 80′, Cancar 89′, Margush 90+4′
Red cards: nil
Attendance: TBA
Venue: CommBank Stadium
Next up
Victory’s busy run of games continues with a home fixture against Central Coast on Saturday night at AAMI Park.
