Adelaide United have come from behind to record a 2-1 win over Melbourne Victory after an Evan Kostopoulos double either side of half time in the National Youth League in Adelaide on Saturday.
The Victory were fielding three A-League listed players with Ricardinho, Leigh Broxham and Geoff Kellaway all contributing to Melbourne’s opening goal but unable to prevent defeat.
Adelaide started the better of the two sides and could have nearly taken the lead inside the opening two minutes.
The Baby Reds carved out a great chance for Francesco Monterosso after Perry Mitris whipped in a cross from the left, but the dual NYL top goal scorer failed to convert the chance.
Mitris’ cross found Monterosso unmarked at the back post but the United striker only got his chest to the ball and it didn’t trouble Victory keeper Sebastian Mattei.
On 10 minutes, Monterosso had another chance with a curling shot from outside the area but it sailed past the post after Kostopoulos had laid it off.
But on the quarter hour the visitors took the lead after a well worked move involving A-League striker Ricardinho .
The Brazilian released Kellaway who provided the cross for James Jeggo to open the scoring.
Jeggo timed his run perfectly and slotted home from close range despite Baby Reds keeper Nick Munro getting his hand to the ball.
Minutes before half time, Victory midfielder Broxham almost doubled Melbourne’s lead with a nicely taken free kick.
Broxham stepped up from just outside the area and his curling attempt looked to be going in before Munro got his glove to the ball and parried it out for a corner.
From the resulting counter attack, Adelaide grabbed a deserved equaliser through Kostopoulos after some brilliant work on the right from Jackson Groves.
Groves’ tenacity was rewarded when he emerged with the ball just inside the box from between two Victory defenders before dashing to the byline and cutting the ball back.
The pass found Kostopoulos who smashed it first time, but his goal-bound effort was blocked by team-mate Mitris.
Kostopoulos followed up with the rebound and coolly dispatched it past Mattei in the Victory goal.
Matthew Halliday almost gave Adelaide the lead just after half time with a free header at the back post from a dangerously swinging Brad Norton corner, but his effort went over the bar.
Ricardinho was becoming a constant threat for the Victory and the striker got himself in a dangerous position on the hour mark, but his shot was blocked by some desperate Adelaide defending.
In the 64th minute the Baby Reds took the lead when Kostopoulos got his second.
The Victory defenders were caught napping and the striker pounced on a loose ball after a throw in and blasted past Mattei from 10 metres.
Soon after, Ricardinho nearly levelled the scores after a goal mouth scramble but his spectacular effort rebounded off the bar.
Ricardinho was quickest to react during the goal mouth scramble as the ball sat up nicely for the Brazilian to execute an overhead kick.
Kostopoulos went close to his hat-trick with 15 minutes remaining, firing a rocket from 25 metres, but Melbourne shot stopper Mattei did beautifully to parry the shot to safety.
Adelaide United 2 (Kostopoulos 2)
Melbourne Victory 1 (Jeggo)