Melbourne Victory has fallen to Brunswick City in a high-scoring contest but remains in top spot.
Summary
It didn’t take long for the deadlock to be broken after Brunswick City found the back of the net early.
A leaping header from a Brunswick attacker was too powerful for Sultan to stop, giving the home side an early advantage in the 4th minute.
But it didn’t take long for Victory to level things back up.
Tommaso Minutoli squared things back up at Dunstan Reserve after a brilliant low cross from the right of the box beat the City keeper, finding Minutoli alone in front of goal.
The deadlock again didn’t last long when a deflected shot in the 14th minute from Brunswick found the back of the net, giving the hosts a 2-1 lead early in the contest.
Marc Petheriotis was shown the first yellow of the contest after a heavy challenge on the edge of the box in an attempt to stop a quick counterattack.
With just over 10 minutes remaining in the half, up stepped Austin Ganino.
A wonder strike from outside the box from Ganino found the top left corner of the goal to bring things back level once again.
Two big chances came Brunswick’s way on the edge of half-time. A curling shot from outside the box and a close raged shot through traffic were dealt expertly with by Sultan to keep the scores locked.
There was no way through for much of the second half, with both teams trading possession.
Jordan Hoey was brought on in the 70th minute for Marc Petheriotis as Victory looked to add some pace back to the game in the hunt for a winner.
But it was Brunswick who, for a third time, took the lead.
A brilliant save from Sultan was unable to be cleared, the follow-up shot from the hosts finding the back of the net.
With just over 10 minutes remaining, Lazarevski and Kapaklis were both brought on to help find a point.
Next Up
Victory are back in action next Sunday, when they take on Langwarrin at Epping Stadium, kicking off at 3pm AEST.
VPL1 2024 Round 21
Brunswick City 3
Melbourne Victory 2 (Minu
Melbourne Victory U23s starting XI: 1 Yona Sultan GK 22 Dimi Palatsides 27 Nikolas Čevizović 4 Damien Bozinovski 21 George Karvounis 8 Kayne Razmovski 16 Jack Mihailidis 9 Adem Duratović (C) 14 Austin Ganino 34 Marc Petheriotis 13 Tommaso Minutoli
