Liberty A-League report: Victory 5-0 Wanderers

Melbourne Victory made it four straight wins in the Liberty A-League, resoundingly beating the Western Sydney Wanderers 5-0 on Saturday.

Summary

Victory produced an emphatic display at AAMI Park to move back into third on the table.

Catherine Zimmerman scored a brace to go with goals from MelindaJ Barbieri, Kyra Cooney-Cross and Courtney Nevin.

Victory made a fast start and opened the scoring in the fifth minute through Zimmerman.

Polly Doran released Cooney-Cross – playing her 50th Liberty A-League game – down the right, the attacker crossing for Zimmerman, who needed two attempts to put away her fourth goal of the season.

Bryleeh Henry had a decent chance for the Wanderers just after the half-hour mark before Victory doubled the lead.

Cooney-Cross played in a wonderful through pass for Barbieri, who finished clinically in a one-on-one with Wanderers goalkeeper Sarah Langman for her first goal of the season.

Victory pushed to begin the second half and Alex Chidiac was denied by a good save from Langman following a dazzling run in the 49th minute.

Casey Dumont was needed to keep Victory’s two-goal lead intact, making a save down low to deny Henry.

Either side of the hour-mark and Victory finished the contest, scoring three times.

Cooney-Cross opened her account for the campaign, rounding Langman before finishing to score a deserved goal.

The attacker then set up Zimmerman for her second, the forward heading against the post before volleying in.

Nevin then made it 5-0 on her 20th birthday, her cross from the left floating into the far top corner for her first goal in the Liberty A-League.

The impressive Cooney-Cross almost added another, hitting the crossbar from 20 yards with her left foot after cutting in from the right as Victory closed out a strong win.

Key moment

What they said – Cooney-Cross

on the game…
“I think it was a better performance from the girls this week, been a bit rusty the last few weeks and we’ve been playing bottom teams and it just wasn’t good enough. We had a team meeting during the week and we put a few things together and said things that we need to be better at and I think the girls did that today.”

Player in focus

Cooney-Cross was in brilliant form against the Wanderers. Playing in attack, she scored and was involved in three other goals in a stunning display.

Implications

Victory climbed back into third on the table, level on points with City and four adrift of Sydney FC, having played the same number of games.

Result

Liberty A-League 2021/22 Round 11
Melbourne Victory 5
(Catherine Zimmerman 5’/60′, MelindaJ Barbieri 32′, Kyra Cooney-Cross 58′, Courtney Nevin 63′)
Western Sydney Wanderers 0

Melbourne Victory: Dumont (gk); Doran, Bunge, Hendrix, Nevin; Chidiac (Murphy 62′), Jackson (c) (Eliadis 63′); Cooney-Cross, Barbieri, Zimmerman (Privitelli 81′); Markovski (Withers 46′).
Western Sydney Wanderers:
Langman (gk); Halloway (Chauvet 46′), Huynh, Cooper (c), Matos (Galea 84′); Henry, Galic (Price 73′), Steinmetz, Collister (Abdul Massih 68′); Copus-Brown, Habuda.

Yellow cards: Abdul Massih 90+1′, Cooney-Cross 90+5′
Red cards:
Nil
Attendance: TBA
Venue: AAMI Park

Next up

Victory looks to continue its winning streak when it meets Sydney FC at City Vista Recreation Reserve on Wednesday.