Melbourne Victory has moved to second place on the ladder after a comfortable 3-1 victory against Sydney FC in the Big Blue derby.
The Australia Day clash was played in front of a sold out Aami Park crowd, with many of them leaving the game smiling as two deflected Rojas goals and a Archie Thompson strike were enough for the home side to earn the three points. While Joel Griffiths scored his second in as many games for the visitors.
The Victory made a decent start to the contest as both Leigh Broxham and Marco Rojas had early opportunities to open the scoring. First, Broxham shot wide after a smart back heel from Rojas, while moments later the Kiwi would have opened the scoring had it not been for a goal-saving tackle by Grant.
After wasting another opportunity in the opening fifteen minutes by shooting wide of the mark, Rojas fortune took a turn midway through the first half as his strike on goal took a deflection of Sebastian Ryall before finding it’s way past Vedran Janjetovic.
Sydney struggled to find a hold of possession in the opening half, with Melbourne Victory unfortunate not to have found a second goal.
With half an hour left to play, Sydney’s afternoon got worse as defender Tiago Calvano was sent off with a second yellow, after catching Broxham with the elbow.
Thompson doubled the lead for the hosts as Celeski played through the Socceroos striker who made no mistake from eight yards. Moments later, Rojas luck continued as he saw another one of his shots deflect into the back of the net, this time of Adam Griffiths.
With fifteen minutes remaining, Joel Griffiths scored his second goal in two games, however it was too little too late for the Sky Blues who remain placed just outside the top six.
MV – Nathan COE, Diego FERREIRA, Adama TRAORE, Nick ANSELL, Billy CELESKI (Jonathan BRU 88th min), Mark MILLIGAN, Leigh BROXHAM 60, Marco FLORES (Francesco STELLA 76th min), Archie THOMPSON (Andrew NABBOUT 76th min), Marco ROJAS, Adrian LEIJER.
SFC – Vedran JANJETOVIC, Sebastian RYALL, FABIO, Tiago CALVANO, Rhyan GRANT, Jason CULINA, Joel GRIFFITHS, Brett EMERTON (Blake POWELL 25th min), Terry MCFLYNN, Ali ABBAS, Alessandro DEL PIERO
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