Victory came into the game led by Jason Geria, who captained the side in his final match before joining J1 League club Albirex Niigata.
Arthur Diles made one change to his starting lineup heading into the clash, bringing winger Reno Piscopo into the XI.
Victory came out hot, putting pressure on Western United early in the game and were soon rewarded for this strong start.
Jordi Valadon received the ball from a cleared corner and played an exceptional through pass for Brendan Hamill who expertly slipped the ball past Matt Sutton in the 9th minute, putting his side 1-0 up with his first goal since rejoining the club.
However, Western United began to grow into the game after conceding. In a similar fashion, Ben Garuccio was found in behind after a corner and played a ball across to towering striker Hiroshi Ibusuki who found the back of the net.
Western continued to look for their Japanese target man upfront, requiring some excellent defensive efforts from Roderick Miranda to prevent him space to score.
Victory began to fight their way back into the game, notably finding Daniel Arzani repeatedly down the right wing who was unable to write his name on the scoresheet after some good chances.
Arzani soon made up for these misses, using his speed and physicality on the counter-attack to find Bruno Fornaroli for a cutback who made no mistake.
Fornaroli’s goal fired Victory back into the lead and ensured that the Navy Blues entered the half-time break 2-1 up.
Western United started the second 45 strong, with Jack Duncan pulling off some strong saves to keep Victory ahead.
Reno Piscopo thought he had scored his second goal of the season in the 59th minute; however the goal was disallowed for a foul to the dismay of the home crowd.
“They’re the little moments that can turn the game as well because you aren’t going one in front, you’re going two in front at that point.” said Head Coach Arthur Diles post match.
Western continued to push for an equaliser, coming close through a Hiroshi Ibusuki header that clattered off the crossbar.
The Green and Black found their goal back in the 69th minute thanks to Abel Walatee who finished off a rapid counter-attacking move.
Arthur Diles turned to his substitutes in the final stages of the game; bringing on Nishan Velupillay, Santos, Kasey Bos and Nikos Vergos.
With almost immediate effect, Santos fired Victory into the lead after an excellent ball played across from Zinedine Machach.
The Brazilian celebrated his first goal for the club with a backflip in front of the Northern Terrace, a special moment for the winger.
Victory looked to hold on and cement the scoreline, notably with excellent individual moments from Jack Duncan and Roderick Miranda to keep out the visitors.
Arthur Diles brought on Joshua Rawlins late on to attempt to shut out United, but they could not quite hold on.
Noah Botic headed home a corner in the 91st minute – a demoralising moment for Victory.
In almost unbelievable fashion, Western United took the lead for the first time in the 95th minute thanks to Hiroshi Ibusuki. The forward finished off yet another comeback win for John Aloisi’s side.
The referee soon after blew the full-time whistle on a 3-4 loss for Victory, a tough result to take for the side.
Despite taking the loss, Victory will count themselves unlucky after registering more shots on goal and higher expected goals (3.03 to Western United’s 1.93 xG).
Arthur Diles emphasised the importance of growing from the result and taking the positives from the game.
“There were so many positives tonight. I thought tonight for the most part we were very good.” Diles said.
“The football was good, the chance creation was good, the goals were good; but the disappointing part was the result.
“We’ll look at the performance as a whole and obviously we’ll look at every goal we conceded just like we’ll look at the goals we scored and the chances we created that we didn’t score off as well.”
Melbourne Victory will head off on the road to South Australia, taking on Adelaide United on Saturday, January 18 before returning to AAMI Park on January 24 to play Sydney FC in the Club’s Unite Round.
Tickets are available at Ticketek.
