The Big Blue - Melbourne Victory v Sydney FC @ Stade Municipal (AAMI Park)
Team news:
We slotted in Ansell and Celeski for Melbourne Victory and kept Sydney FC exactly the same as last week.
The first half was all Victory with the majority of possession and chances with Rojas attempting to dribble past the Sydney FC defence on multiple occasions. Brett Emerton had the best chance for Sydney FC in the first half but was brilliantly saved by the (real life) in form Nathan Coe. Half-time: 0-0 (Bru came on for Broxham at HT)
The second half was much more attacking and fiery as Marcos Flores absolutely destroyed Joel Griffiths in a tackle although according to the referee it was only a yellow. Eventually someone scored a goal (I was starting to get worried...) with Marcos Flores opening the scoring in the 74th minute. Flores took it on himself and dribbled through the box and turned around Tiago and smashed it home to give Victory the 1-0 lead in the Big Blue.
After the goal the away side made two changes with Antonis coming on for McFlynn and Yau coming on for Ali Abbas and it seemed to have worked as Sydney FC started to fire with 3 consecutive shots on target after the Victory goal and eventually they got their reward with new signing Joel Griffiths scoring his second goal in sky blue colours. Adama Troare made a run up field and stupidly lost possession which then gave Jason Culina tonnes of space to run down the flank and into the box then he smartly chipped the ball to Joel Griffiths who neatly headed it home in the 88th minute.
Full-time: Melbourne Victory (Flores 74') 1-1 Sydney FC (J. Griffiths 88')