A high-scoring first half led by Jamie Maclaren and Marco Tilio helped Melbourne City claim a 3-2 win over a persistent Sydney FC side at AAMI Park.
City was eager to avenge last week’s derby defeat and opened the scoring within five minutes.
Melbourne’s star striker Maclaren got on the end of Florin Berenguer’s cross into the penalty area and headed home the opening goal in the 5th minute.
After claiming a 1-0 lead, the home side continued to pile on the offensive pressure on Sydney.
Young City forward Tilio extended his club’s advantage to 2-0 after he finished an exceptional solo run with a powerful shot into the top right corner.
Despite conceding two early goals, Sydney midfielder Joe Lolley threaded a penetrating through ball to striker Robert Mak who capitalised on the chance, halving the deficit to 2-1 at the 28-minute mark.
Unfortunately for Sydney, their resurgence was short-lived. Two minutes later, Tilio got the better of the Sky Blues’ defence again, passing the ball into a dangerous area and allowing Maclaren to restore City’s two-goal lead from point-blank range, 3-1.
Sydney came close to reducing the deficit again when midfielder, Anthony Caceres, got on the end of Lolley’s low cross, but the goal got overturned after the linesman ruled it offside.
City’s Richard Van der Denne and Sydney’s Paulo Retre were given yellow cards in close succession to begin the second 45 minutes, maintaining the intensity both sides displayed in the first half.
Alex Parsons came close to making an immediate impact off the bench for the Sky Blues, but his driven shot from long-range flew over the crossbar and could not reduce Melbourne’s 3-1 lead.
In the final 10 minutes, Sydney nearly halved the deficit again when Patrick Wood received the ball in a promising area but was later deemed offside.
Shortly after, City midfielder, Valon Berisha, attempted to seal the win for his side with a strong shot from inside the box but got denied by a diving Andrew Redmayne.
Redmayne lunged to make another world-class save following Berisha’s shot, stopping Andrew Nabbout’s well-placed strike from less than 10 yards out.
Late into stoppage time, Sydney defender, Diego Caballo, stepped up to take a free-kick just outside the penalty area.
The Spaniard curled a stunning shot into the top right corner, reducing the scoreline in the 97th minute, but the referee blew the final whistle moments later, and City held on to claim a 3-2 win.
Key Takeaways
Can anyone catch Maclaren?
Jamie Maclaren’s first-half brace took his tally for the season to 18 goals.
Following Saturday’s performance, the Socceroo is now six goals clear of Central Coast’s Jason Cummings and looks primed to claim his fourth consecutive A-League Men Golden Boot.
The only question that remains as we begin to approach the business end of the 2022-23 season is, who could dethrone him from the top spot?
City’s first-half flurry stuns Sydney
Melbourne City became the first side this season to score three goals in a half of football against Sydney FC.
City’s clinical forward line and consistent pressure were too much for the visitors to handle in the opening 45 minutes.
Melbourne opened up Sydney’s defence with seven key passes in the first half and was able to captialise by scoring three of the four shots they placed on-target.
Based on City’s performance on Saturday and their league-leading goal total (42), opposing teams will find it difficult to tame their attacking dominance throughout the rest of the campaign.
Resilient City bounce back
Despite last week’s derby loss, City returned to their championship form with a solid victory at home.
Throughout the 2022-23 A-League Men’s Season, Melbourne has not suffered successive defeats across 17 games.
If City can maintain their excellent level of resilience, a third consecutive A-League Premiership could become a reality in the near future.
Final Score
Melbourne City – 3 (Maclaren 5′, 30′, Tilio, 7′)
Sydney FC – 2 (Mak 28′, Caballo 90+7′)
Image Credit: Mackenzie Sweetnam/Getty Images
