It’s amazing what a week can do in football. In less than seven days, Melbourne Victory went from being booed by their own fans to earning applause from those same supporters at the same venue.
After Monday’s loss to reigning Isuzu UTE A-League champions Western United, 10-man Victory defied their ladder position to upstage high-flying Central Coast Mariners 2-0 on Sunday – keeping their faint finals hopes alive in the process.
“We were dead and buried, you guys told us,” head coach Tony Popovic told 10 Bold post-game.
Victory remain rooted to the bottom of the standings, though last season’s semi-finalists are just six points adrift of the top six with a game in hand after goals from Bruno Fornaroli and Fernando Romero – who was later sent off – fuelled the hosts.
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Popovic’s side face an uphill battle to reach the finals with six matches remaining, including their suspended Melbourne Derby, but Network 10 analyst Grace Gill made a big call about Victory’s run-in.
“Something I can see Victory doing is just going on this run, whether or not they make the top six, they can be disrupters and they can really play havoc with that chasing pack,” the former A-Leagues star said.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if Victory go through undefeated from here on until the end of the season.”
Victory will face Wellington Phoenix, Perth Glory, Western Sydney Wanderers, Macarthur FC, Brisbane Roar and City to close out the 2022-23 season.
Former A-Leagues striker Daniel McBreen was not as optimistic regarding Victory’s finals hopes.
“They need a lot of things to go their way, a lot of results to go their way,” he said.
“But as Robbie Thomson kept saying during the call, it is so tight in the league, maybe in this alternate universe we’re seeing this year where everything is so close, they could hop, skip and dance their way into the finals but it’s highly unlikely.”
‘We will fight until the end’
Victory came into the contest undefeated in their last 16 A-League Men matches against the Mariners in Victory (W11, D5) – their longest unbeaten run against a single team in their home state in the history of the competition.
And with their finals hopes fading, Victory extended that streak thanks to Fornaroli and Romero.
Fornaroli opened the scoring to make it four goals in his last five games before Romero became the first Paraguayan in Isuzu UTE A-League to score in the competition, though he was dramatically sent off 10 minutes later following a VAR review for a tackle.
Victory also survived a penalty call late in the first half – Damien Da Silva was initially penalised for bringing down Marco Tulio before the decision was overturned after the referee reviewed the incident on the pitch-side monitor.
“We can be happy with tonight. It was a real mature performance. Even when we went down to 10 men, we didn’t look rocky. We didn’t look like conceding,” said Victory star Chris Ikonomidis.
“Hopefully this is the circuit-breaker we need to finish the season strong.
He added: “The work has always been there and the signs that a change was coming in form for our team. This has been a long-time coming for us.”
Fornaroli has now scored 88 goals in his A-League Men career, with his 16th-minute strike keeping Victory in the finals race.
“For sure,” he said when asked if the result gave Victory a boost in their top-six hunt. “We will fight until the end.
“We spoke with the boys and step by step, starting with tonight. A great effort, everybody put their body on the line. But we can’t look too far ahead.”
Central Coast’s Victoria drought continues
The Mariners in Victoria does not usually end well, just look at the numbers.
Not since March 2014 have they emerged victorious from their trip across the border and that run of winless games in Victory stretched to 28 consecutive games after losing to Victory on Sunday (L6, D22).
Central Coast are also winless in their past 17 A-League Men matches against Victory in the state (L12, D5).
“We came into the game full of confidence on the back of last week’s performance,” said Harry Steele. “We just weren’t at it today. Even the ball speed across the park it wasn’t there.
“We will hopefully bounce back [after the international break].”
“I’m not sure if it’s the voodoo at this AAMI Park, but we have to be better,” he said, trying to pinpoint what went wrong, having routed Macarthur FC 4-1 last time out.
For Mariners head coach Nick Montgomery, he was honest in his assessment of the match.
“We made some sloppy mistakes. The first goal, they let us have the ball. A Melbourne Victory team that had 10 men behind the ball,” he said.
“… You can’t give goals away like that and expect to win games.
“10 men behind the ball, it’s hard to break down. They have some good defenders and good players. You know the budget they have. For them, it was a team fighting for their life and we didn’t look like we were at the races today.”
Report – AAP
Melbourne Victory’s new-look attacking duo of Bruno Fornaroli and Fernando Romero struck to deliver a 2-0 win over Central Coast and revive their ailing season.
Fornaroli’s chip in the 16th minute gave Victory the upper hand before Romero notched his first Isuzu UTE A-League goal in the 55th at AAMI Park.
Romero’s day was soured when he was sent off for a studs-up tackle in the 66th minute while in the 82nd minute, the Mariners were awarded a penalty which was contentiously chalked off after a VAR review.
Victory remain bottom of the table but just six points outside the finals places with five games, plus their to-be-resumed Christmas Melbourne derby, to play.
The Mariners, who haven’t won in Victoria since 2014, sit fourth and six points outside the top two.
Tony Popovic started Fornaroli and Romero together for the first time and Victory drew first blood when Roderick Miranda lifted a long cross-field ball into the path of Fornaroli.
The Socceroo wrapped his boot around the ball and lofted it first-time over Danny Vukovic’s head and into the goal.
The Mariners started the second half with greater intensity and Moresche headed over the bar in the 49th minute.
Victory doubled their lead five minutes later.
Damien Da Silva picked out Chris Ikonomidis with a lovely cross-field ball and the winger burst along the goal line before cutting it back for Romero to bury at the near post.
Four minutes later, Mariners striker Jason Cummings teed up Moresche but the Brazilian fired off target.
Victory went down a man when Romero caught Max Balard with a studs-up tackle to the shin in the 63rd minute and after a VAR review, referee Jonathan Barreiro gave the Paraguayan a straight red card.
It was the 42nd red card of the ALM season – a league record.
Central Coast were awarded a penalty when Da Silva was ruled to have brought down Marco Tulio in the 79th minute but after a VAR review, Barreiro overturned it.
Victory defended staunchly from there to see out the game.
