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Victory convincing over homesick Phoenix

Saturday, January 05, 2013

by

Melbourne Victory has put the midweek loss to Western Sydney behind them, with a comfortable 2-0 win over Wellington Phoenix at Aami Park.

Goals through Marcos Flores and Marco Rojas on either side of the break were enough to defeat the Phoenix who continue to struggle on their travels.                                                                   

Both sides started the game pretty evenly, sharing possession, although struggling to create any real goal threats.

Marco Rojas had an early opportunity to open the scoring for the hosts, but the Kiwi international failed to clearly connect with his volley which flew well over the bar. For the visitors, the best chance of the half fell to Stein Huysegems who struck a powerful effort goal wards which was punched clear by Nathan Coe.

Just after the half-hour mark, Victory started to control possession and threaten the goal of the visitors through Rojas and Flores, however both players managed to waste the opportunities.

It seemed the game was heading goalless into the break, however with three minutes to go, Marcos Flores found the back of the net, after the Phoenix defence failed to clear a Marco Rojas cross. The former Adelaide man took a great first touch before firing past Mark Paston.

The home side doubled its advantage early in the second half through the in-form Rojas, who reacted quickest after a low shot from Adrian Leijer came of the post before the winger tapped into an empty net.

Midway through the second half, Mark Milligan had two great chances to seal the three points for the home side, his first effort coming of the post, while his second was centimetres off target.

The win leaves Victory only three points from second-placed Adelaide United, while for the Phoenix the loss keeps them out of the top six and only three points ahead of bottom-placed Sydney FC.

MV – Nathan COE, Diego FERREIRA, Adama TRAORE, Nick ANSELL, Billy CELESKI (Luke O’DEA 70th min), Mark MILLIGAN, Spase DILEVSKI (Leigh BROXHAM 60th min), Marcos FLORES, Archie THOMPSON, Marco ROJAS (Andrew NABBOUT 85th min), Adrian LEIJER.

WP – Mark PASTON, Leo BERTOS, Andrew DURANTE, Ben SIGMUND, Tony LOCHHEAD, Louis FENTON (Alex Smith 77th min), Vince LIA, Dani SANCHEZ, Benjamin TOTORI, Jeremy BROCKIE, Stein HUYSEGEMS (Cameron LINDSAY 69th min).