Melbourne Victory Head Coach Jeff Hopkins was pleased with his side’s response in Wednesday’s 2-2 draw with Sydney FC.
Victory fought back from 2-0 down at City Vista Pavilion and Sports Field to make it five games unbeaten in the Liberty A-League.
After Princess Ibini and Remy Siemsen strikes, Lia Privitelli pulled a goal back before Catherine Zimmerman’s 92nd-minute equaliser.
Speaking at his post-match news conference, Hopkins discussed the comeback and the injury suffered by Amy Jackson.
on the game…
“I’m really pleased. To start with, just for the character we showed. I think we were forced to play at an intensity that we hadn’t been forced to play at. Sydney came out of the blocks in the first half and we were almost hanging on to get into half-time. We hadn’t come up against a team that played with that intensity with the ball or without the ball. They pressed us really, really well. With the ball, they played forward really quickly, they got bodies forward really quickly and we were happy to get into half-time and just kind of reassess and get into the girls’ heads a little bit. Although we started the second half much better, we did concede a goal and then conceded another one. The way we came back after that and it wasn’t just, we didn’t just huff and puff and knock the ball long, we actually played some really good football and we started to build some pressure. I was really pleased with the way that we showed to ourselves that we can play and we can really compete with the best in this league and I think we’ve showed everyone else we can do it as well so really, really pleased. I thought our substitutions – everyone was really positive that came on, all contributed and by the end there was a belief that we could draw the game or even go on and win the game, which was superb for me.”
on Privitelli…
“Absolutely outstanding. I think Lia knows how I feel about her as a player. I love the intensity she plays at. If you ask her to run through a brick wall, she will run through a brick wall for you and this Club and she really sparked us off there. She chased down lost causes, put them under pressure and in the end, first half their back four were quite composed and looked to play, they were a little bit panicky and jittery with the ball. She was one of the sparks that really got us going in the second half.”
on lessons…
“We’ve got a huge amount of respect for Sydney FC and their team. Ante (Juric) always puts together a really hard-working, tough, but really positive football side and we’ve got a lot of respect for that, but we showed tonight that we can more than match it and most probably not to everyone else but to ourselves, I think it’s a good lesson for us, sometimes we’re not as confident and brash as we should be with the type of players we’ve got in this side. For me, the lesson that we’ve learnt is we can play at that intensity but we have to bring it from minute one because we could easily have been a few goals down at half-time today.”
on injury to Jackson…
“I’m not sure. I think it may be her ankle, maybe her Achilles, just a bit of soreness there. It’s something that’s quite new so we’ll have a look at it and we’ll deal with it and whatever happens with it.”
