Melbourne Victory and Sydney share the spoils in fast, furious and physical Big Blue.
It was a cagey opening to the Big Blue with the two sides locked in a tight affair early on with Sydney being the closest to opening the scoring in early inside first half with Trent Buhagiar forcing a save from a good save from Victory custodian Ivan Kelava.
Francesco Margiotta was the next player to have a brilliant chance. The Italian was played in behind following a mistake from James Donachie unfortunately the 28-year-old squandered his opportunity to finish and break the deadlock.
The Sky Blues were able to free up Trent Buhagiar on numerous occasions early on with the pacy winger often slipped in behind from Elvis Kamsoba. The 23-year-old again saw himself one on one with Kelava for a second time but he was unable to convert his chance.
It was the hosts though who struck first in the Big Blue. Marco Rojas produced an extremely impressive switch to 22-year-old Ben Folami and the young Australian took two touches before firing his shot right into the back of the Sky Blues net.
The deadlock is broken!
Marco Rojas and Ben Folami link up to give @gomvfc the lead at @AAMIPark.#MVCvSYD #WeAreALeagues
🎥 – @ParamountPlusAU pic.twitter.com/ozF0UNwRRz— Isuzu UTE A-League (@aleaguemen) January 25, 2022
However, Sydney brought the game back to level pegging through Miloš Ninković as he was composed enough to bundle the ball back into the back of the net on the 37th minute following a scramble in the box.
The Victory started the second half the strongest out of the two teams but despite that Sydney keeper Tom Heward-Belle produced one of the saves of the season from a Folami strike from close-range. Robbie Kruse turned hero late on as it was Melbourne who regained the lead with a tap-in. Nonetheless, Steve Corica’s side equalised once again in the 80th minute with Bobô netting from a corner.
In what can only be described as a crazy and outrageous ending to the Big Blue end to end action resulted in a draw between the two teams with both sides feeling that they should have picked up the points on offer on Tuesday evening.
Key Takeaways
MISSED CHANCES FOR BOTH SIDES
Both Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC should have won that match, to put it plain and simple terms, the two sides should have capitalised on the chances they were presented across the 90 minutes.
The pacy duo of Kamsoba and Buhagiar exposed Leigh Broxham early on, and the winger Buhagiar had two key chances, his first chance he fired his shot right at the keeper while his second chance he blazed well wide of Kelava’s goal.
Folami who netted the opener for the Victory had an easy chance to double his goal tally in the match but he will be regretting he was unable to put the ball into the back of the net from five yards out when Heward-Belle produced a freak save.
MAJOR ISSUES FOR CORICA
It has been now four games straight for the Sky Blues that they have been unable to pick up a win, and it has Sydney FC fans extremely frustrated with the 41-year-old manager.
The Sky Blues were rocked early on with the major injury to key midfielder Luke Brattan who tore his ACL in an FFA Cup tie against Sydney Olympic and the replacement signing of Mustafa Amini has not been impactful in his limited minutes in past matches since linking up with the squad in Januray.
Corica’s squad lacks fluidity within the midfield and it is somewhere the Sky Blues have been unable to assert their dominance, which is a tactical trait usually associated with the past sides we have seen.
BUHAGIAR RUES MISSED OPPORTUNITIES
The 23-year-old had two extremely good looks on goal in the first half following two brilliant through balls from Kamsoba but he was unable to convert on both.
Buhagiar has been hit and miss this season as he has only scored one goal in eight games for the Sky Blues and at the very least should have added two more to his tally so far this season.
These chances missed would have left Corica thinking about what could have been in the Big Blue after Sydney had dominated the previous fixtures between the two clubs.
FINAL SCORE
A-League Men, AAMI Park
Melbourne Victory 2
Sydney FC 2 ( Folami 17′ Kruse 77′ Ninković 37′ Bobô 80′ )
Image Source: A-League Men
