Despite the early sending off of Georg Niedermeier, Melbourne Victory withstood the waves of attack to secure a draw in the final edition of the Melbourne Derby for the season.
It was set up to be a spectacular affair however this Melbourne Derby mostly fell flat in front of a relatively small crowd of 32,432 at Marvel Stadium; the lowest in eight years.
Melbourne City were unable to capitalise on their shot superiority with 13 attempts on goal. All but one were low quality long range efforts, compared to Victory’s one, which they duly converted.
With the race for the Premiership all but over, Victory are now 10 points behind Perth Glory and that gap could widen to 13 if Glory extend their five game winning streak by beating Western Sydney Wanderers on Sunday.
To complicate matters for Kevin Muscat’s boys, Victory now drop to third in the table with Sydney FC narrowly defeating Wellington Phoenix 1-0 earlier that day.
Warren Joyce’s future at Melbourne City still lies in the balance, with the side now clocking up only one win in their previous eight matches.
Whatever happens, Joyce will be the happier set of managers knowing that he has prevented Victory from winning even one out of three Melbourne Derbies in a regular season, the last occurrence of this was in the 2011/12 season.
Terry Antonis returned to the lineup after serving his suspension against Wellington Phoenix last week. Keisuke Honda made the starting line up for the first time since 14th December of last year.
It was a nervy start from both teams, but it was City who found their break just 16 minutes in, in the game’s first clear cut opportunity.
De Laet’s searching through ball from City’s half found Jamie Maclaren, who jet past Georg Niedermeier with ease. With the ball already in the box, the big German clumsily fell Maclaren with a tackle from behind, was shown a second yellow, and City were awarded a stonewall penalty.
Maclaren’s powerful spot kick was enough to beat Lawrence Thomas despite the goalkeeper diving the wrong way. Maclaren now has his first Melbourne Derby goal and has scored three goals in three outing since his return from Hibernian.
The 10-men Victory sacrificed Elvis Kambosa and brought on James Donachie.
Kearyn Baccus and Shayon Harrison skied multiple chances outside the box around the half hour mark, but City were not rewarded with their large bouts of momentum since the early goal.
Rostyn Griffiths shook the woodwork with a long ranger in injury time, in what was a stark message to Victory, who had zero shots on targets in the first half – compared to City’s seven. Both sides headed into a break with four yellow cards and a red card between them.
Victory entered the second half hard and fast, and were immediately rewarded with in the 49th minute. It was probably in Kosta Barbarouses’ best interest to find a dark blue shirt in the area after a blazing run down the right. Instead the Kiwi’s cross-cum-shot swung in towards the City keeper instead. In what was a goalkeeping calamity, Eugene Galekovic palmed the ball into his own net, sending scores of Victory fans behind him into raptures.
Now, just HOW did Kosta Barbarouses scores from THAT angle? Perhaps Victory’s earlier VAR call would’ve gone their way. #MelbDerby pic.twitter.com/Ivvd83PsGE
— Ngau Kai Yan (@KaiTFS) February 23, 2019
Two minutes off the hour mark, City were again denied by the woodwork with Luke Bratton seeing his effort from the edge of the box this time ping off the top of the woodwork.
City remained lax and uninspired despite their numerical advantage and chances were reduced to mere potshots. Three more yellow cards followed in the last ten minutes of play, and the match disappointingly droned to a draw.
Victory next face Newcastle Jets at Simonds Park on 2nd March.
Melbourne Victory 1 (Kosta Barbarouses ’50)
Melbourne City 1 (Jamie Maclaren 16’ [P] )
Melbourne Victory: 20.Lawrence Thomas (GK), 3.Corey Brown, 4.Keisuke Honda (2. Storm Roux 77’), 5.Georg Niedermeier, 6.Leigh Broxham (C), 8.Terry Antonis, 9.Kosta Barbarouses, 10.James Troisi (11.Ola Toivonen 46’), 14.Thomas Deng, 15.Raul Baena, 24.Elvis Kamsoba (17. James Donachie 17’)
Unused Substitutes: 1.Matthew Acton (GK), 7.Kenjok Athiu
Melbourne City: 18. Eugene Galekovic (GK), 2. Ritchie De Laet, 3. Scott Jamieson (C), 5. Bart Schenkeveld, 7. Rostyn Griffifths, 9. Shayon Harrison > 19. Lachlan Wales (69’), 15. Kearyn Baccus (20. Dario Vidosic 79’), 22. Curtis Good, 26. Luke Bratton, 27. Florin Berenguer-Bohrer (8. Riley McGree 76’), 29. Jamie Maclaren
Unused Substitutes: 1. Mark Birghitti (GK), 25. Iacopo La Rocca
Stadium: Marvel Stadium
Referee: Peter Green
Assistant Referees: George Lakrindis, Daniel Ilievski
Fourth Official: Lachlan Keevers
Video Assistant Referee: Kristian Griffifhs-Jones
Feature image credit: Ngau Kai Yan
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