A youthful Melbourne Victory suffered a 4-0 loss to Daegu in the AFC Champions League on Wednesday.
Summary
With a host of first-team players rested for the trip to Forest Arena, Victory was unable to cause an upset in Group F.
Edgar Silva’s early penalty and second-half goals from Jeong Tae-wook, Kim Dae-won and Jung Seon-ho saw Daegu to its win.
Victory fell behind in the ninth minute after Josh Hope brought down Kim in the area, Edgar stepping up to convert the penalty.
Despite trailing, Victory controlled possession for most of the opening 15 minutes, although Kim had an effort graze the crossbar from 25 yards.
Benjamin Carrigan, the 20-year-old defender making his senior debut, and Jack Palazzolo – on his maiden start – were busy throughout the first half.
Edgar put a couple of headers off target for Daegu, which created the better of the opportunities throughout the opening 45 minutes.
But Victory had a great chance to equalise on the stroke of half-time through Palazzolo.
Hope put the 19-year-old forward in behind, but Palazzolo was denied in a one-on-one by Daegu goalkeeper Cho Hyun-woo.
Carrigan made an excellent last-ditch tackle to deny Jang Seong-won early in the second half, but Daegu doubled its lead in the 53rd minute.
Victory goalkeeper Matt Acton made a good save to keep out Jeong Tae-wook’s header, but the defender followed up to tuck away the rebound.
Jeong Seung-won squandered an opportunity for Daegu, while Victory started to put together some good passing moves.
It led to a chance for Kenny Athiu, denied by Cho after being played through by Rahmat Akbari in the 73rd minute.
Only a great save by Cho kept out Elvis Kamsoba’s low strike at the near post as Victory pushed for a way back into the game.
Instead, Daegu sealed its win, Kim firing a 25-yard effort into the top corner with 10 minutes remaining before Jung tapped in the fourth, while Aaron Anderson, 18, was also handed his Victory debut late on.
Player in focus
Result
AFC Champions League 2019 Match Day 5
Daegu 4 (Edgar Silva 9′ pen, Jeong Tae-wook 53′, Kim Dae-won 80′, Jung Seon-ho 83′)
Melbourne Victory 0
Daegu: Cho (gk); Jeong Tae-wook, Hong (c), Kim Woo-seok; Jang, Nishi (Jung 82′), Hwang (Han 76′), Kang; Jeong Seung-won (Kim Jun-yub 69′), Edgar, Kim Dae-won.
Melbourne Victory: Acton (gk) (c); Deng, Donachie, Carrigan (Anderson 85′); Roux, Hope (Kirdar 81′), Akbari, Brown; Ingham, Athiu, Palazzolo (Kamsoba 62′).
Yellow cards: Donachie 47′
Red cards: Nil
Attendance: TBA
Venue: Forest Arena
Next up
Victory continues its Hyundai A-League campaign with a blockbuster Semi Final clash against Sydney FC at Jubilee Stadium on Sunday.
