On what was Melbourne City’s last game in front of their home crowd for the season and some of City’s young guns last game at AAMI Park ever, an early red card against Sydney FC allowed the premiers to go out and put on a show.
As soon as the opening whistle blew Melbourne City looked like they never had a chance of losing, City were able to control possession early and were able to have numerous opportunities with the ball inside Sydney’s half. But it wasn’t until the 37th minute that Curtis Good opened the premiers’ account after converting Valon Berisha’s corner.
Then in the 59th things went from bad to worse for Sydney after Jack Rodwell conceded an own goal which put the premiers up 3-1 on aggregate.
Marco Tilio, who picked up City’s third of the night, is one of the young Melbourne City players who is looking likely to make a move over to Europe next season in an effort to progress his career to the next level
“Marco has been fantastic for us and since I came [in as Patrick Kisnorbo’s replacement] you can see every week he’s improving,” said Melbourne City head coach Rado Vidosic.
“There was talk about maybe his defensive side is not as good as it could be. But today, and even in Sydney when we played the last week his effort, his running, recovery runs, and sprinting defensively was excellent.
“We know that he’s got all the tools to score goals and create goals. He’s such an exciting player and as he adds to his defensive game, I think the sky’s the limit for him.”
The victory over Sydney FC means that Melbourne City have qualified for their fourth consecutive grand final, the first team in A-League Men’s history to accomplish the feat.
The next challenge that Melbourne City face is participating in a grand final away from home as a result of the APL’s deal with Destination NSW which saw the hosting rights of both the A-League Men’s and A-League Women’s grand finals given to Sydney for the next three seasons.
Vidosic spoke after the game about how his squad have since come to terms with the announcement made earlier this season.
“We stopped talking about that decision months ago,” said Vidosic.
“For whatever reason, some people made that decision. As I said earlier, it’s way over our pay grade. So the people that made that decision know why they made it, we just need to go along with it. It will be a good challenge to go outside our comfort zones.”
Vidosic will be hoping that his players will be able to keep their form strong when they play in the grand final on Saturday, June 3.
Featured Image Credit: Melbourne City FC
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