Melbourne Victory proved too strong against Altona Magic, coming out 0-2 victors in the second friendly of the pre-season.
It was another strong showing for Patrick Kisnorbo’s side on Wednesday night when our boys in blue took on Altona Magic in the team’s second pre-season friendly of 2024/25.
PK kept a relatively similar squad to his previous two line-ups.
Victory started on the front foot, not allowing Altona any time in possession.
The pressure quickly became too much for the Magic when Nishan Velupillay opened the scoring in the 7th minute.
A pin-point through ball from Reno Piscopo found Velupillay with space in the box, and the pacey winger expertly found the back of the net with a curling shot to find the bottom right corner.
The boys in blue didn’t let up, with Reno Piscopo getting in amongst the action once again in the 17th minute.
The former Young Socceroo produced a perfectly placed shot into the bottom left corner of the goal with a curling shot from outside the box.
Not letting their foot off the accelerator, Victory kept Altona to few chances in possession, continuing to control the match nicely.
A few chances came Victory’s way and no further breakthrough was found for the remainder of the first half.
A new XI took the field for the second half, with a mix of experience and youth looking to extend Victory’s lead even further.
Second-half XI
30. Graskoski 16. Inserra 3. Traore 22. Rawlins 32. Cevizovic 24. Menelaou 35. Razmovski 33. Muhindo 34. Lee 7. Arzani 10. Fornaroli
Our boys in blue looked to start the second half just like the first.
An early chance from Bruno Fornaroli tested the Magic keeper, but he was up to the task, collecting nicely.
It was an arm wrestle for much of the second half, with both sides struggling for any breakthrough.
Looking to change things up for the final 10 minutes, Kisnorbo brought Damien Bozinovski and Jack Mihailidis on for Kayne Razmovski and Nikolas Cevizovic.
The full-time whistle blew, and Victory finish with another strong pre-season showing heading into the Australia Cup Round of 16.
