It was frenetic and entertaining in front of a passionate AAMI Park crowd as Melbourne Victory rallied to earn a 1-1 draw with rivals Melbourne City in the Isuzu UTE A-League.
Assistant coach Arthur Diles stepped into the hot seat this week, with his baptism of fire being a blockbuster Melbourne Derby, and the Victory caretaker oversaw an absorbing Round 9 showdown which saw Roderick Miranda’s 65th-minute equaliser cancel out Yonatan Cohen’s first-half opener.
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Bruno Fornaroli almost snatched maximum points at the death after rounding the goalkeeper as the AAMI Park crowd took a collective gasp but City captain Aziz Behich provided the last-ditch challenge to avoid a stoppage-time loss.
With the draw, Victory are third and two points behind league-leading Auckland FC while City remain fourth and three points adrift of their rivals.
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The intensity was high-octane after a spine-tingling rendition of ‘Stand By Me’ by viral violinist Evangeline Victoria at AAMI Park, where Victory legend and current Shanghai Port boss Kevin Muscat was in the stands.
City goalkeeper Patrick Beach was called into action early, getting down low to palm away Daniel Arzani’s curling effort in the fourth minute.
Victory looked threatening but it was City who broke the deadlock 12 minutes later – Cohen silenced the rival supporters as he celebrated in front of the North Terrace after the Israeli bent a shot beyond Jack Duncan.
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Zinedine Machach’s powerful driving run ended in Beach making a brilliant save to thwart the Victory star approaching the half-hour mark.
City were almost gifted a second goal when Duncan spilt a free-kick in the 32nd minute but quickly collected the ball at the second time of asking, while Medin Memeti wasted a glorious chance for the visitors shortly after.
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There was a big let-off for Victory at the start of the second half, with Memeti wasting another golden opportunity to make it 2-0 right in front of goal, much to the dismay of head coach Aurelio Vidmar.
A scrambling Duncan somehow stopped the ball from crossing the line after an outstretched Politidis got on the end of an inch-perfect delivery across the six-yard box on the hour mark after Victory’s Kasey Bos completely mis-hit a shot moments earlier.
Fornaroli and Nishan Velupillay came off the bench to help inspire a Victory fightback and the former almost restored parity within minutes of his introduction.
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Victory, however, did score from the resulting corner. Miranda was on hand to bundle the ball over the line after Beach failed to deal with the corner-kick, despite his passionate protests that he had been fouled by Machach with VAR giving the all clear.
The post was all that stood between Velupillay and the Socceroo putting Victory ahead 13 minutes from the end, while another brilliant Beach save thwarted Fornaroli.
At the other end, Callum Talbot came off the bench and almost instantly put City ahead but Duncan flew through the air to keep the ball out in the 82nd minute.
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