Melbourne Victory’s perfect start to the Liberty A-League season came to an end with a 5-1 Derby loss to City on Sunday.
Summary
Hannah Wilkinson punished numerous Victory errors at AAMI Park, scoring five times.
Maja Markovski came off the bench to score her first Liberty A-League goal late on for Victory.
Victory made a bad start, Wilkinson opening the scoring with a clinical finish in a one-on-one with Casey Dumont.
City went 2-0 ahead in the 13th minute, Wilkinson finishing after an attempted clearance from Dumont was blocked.
A mix up between Dumont and Tiffany Eliadis led to City’s third before the half-hour mark as Wilkinson completed her hat-trick.
Dumont made a big stop to deny Holly McNamara as Victory settled to finish the first half, but was left with a mountain to climb heading into the break.
The Victory goalkeeper denied McNamara in a one-on-one to begin the second half, and a desperate goal-line clearance from Courtney Nevin was also needed.
Wilkinson made it 4-0 before the hour-mark, lobbing Dumont after a pass from McNamara.
Victory missed a great chance in the 66th minute, Catherine Zimmerman heading a Kyra Cooney-Cross set-piece wide.
Wilkinson scored a fifth with 15 minutes remaining, tapping in a Tyla-Jay Vlajnic cross at the back post.
Markovski netted her first Liberty A-League goal with six minutes left.
The striker got on the end of a pass from Alex Chidiac before finishing to make it 5-1.
Key moment
What they said – Markovski
on the game…
“I think from the minute the game started they wanted it more. We weren’t winning our individual duels and we got punished for it. We’ve got to take it and move on.”
on a tight league…
“It’s going to be really competitive to the end of the season, there’s heaps of good teams, but we’re excited for it.”
Player in focus
Markovski showed glimpses off the bench against Brisbane Roar last week and looked good again in the Derby, finishing well for her first Liberty A-League goal.
Implications
Victory’s first loss of the campaign saw Jeff Hopkins’ side drop to third on the table.
Result
Liberty A-League 2021/22 Round 4
Melbourne Victory 1 (Maja Markovski 84′)
City 5 (Hannah Wilkinson 5’/13’/26’/56’/75′)
Melbourne Victory: Dumont (gk); Doran, Bunge, Eliadis, Nevin; Jackson (Barbieri 76′), Cooney-Cross (Murphy 76′); Privitelli (c) (Markovski 62′), Chidiac, Williams; Zimmerman.
City: Barbieri (gk); Heatley, Checker (c), Tumeth; Torpey (Thomas-Chinnama 69′), Davidson, Stott (Blissett 78′), Vlajnic (Malone 78′); Pollicina, Wilkinson, McNamara (McKenna 69′).
Yellow cards: Torpey 3′, Jackson 32′, Zimmerman 67′
Red cards: Nil
Attendance: TBA
Venue: AAMI Park
Next up
Victory faces Brisbane Roar again to begin 2022, hosting the clash at AAMI Park on Sunday, January 2.
