Melbourne Victory held at home by struggling Brisbane

Melbourne Victory have continued their stop-start run of form with a 1-1 draw against struggling Brisbane Roar.

Juan Mata led the hosts to a first-half lead with a classy assist for Charles Nduka, but Victory old boy Nicholas D’Agostino’s equaliser meant they left AAMI Park with a respectable point.

Melbourne Victory ended the match as they started it, in fifth place in the Isuzu UTE A-League. Brisbane will be pleased to see the end of their three-game losing streak and have narrowed the gap between them and the top six to just two points.

After an even opening stanza, Juan Mata received the ball following a careless Brisbane throw and from well within his own half, curled a pass behind the visitors’ back line for the onrushing Charles Nduka.

In just his third appearance since moving from Kagoshima in January, Nduka controlled with his knee before deploying a tidy, left-footed chip to open his Victory account.

With that the marquee Spaniard moved to eight assists in the Isuzu UTE A-League, extending his lead at the top of that metric.

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Nduka, like the rest of his side, burst to life once the deadlock was broken and drew a fine save from Dean Bouzanis with his driven effort from range after 25 minutes.

Against his former club, Nicholas D’Agostino had been a noteworthy presence for the visitors thanks to his persistent, physical battling, which threatened to become a flashpoint when Denis Genreau—who was dismissed for violent conduct in the reverse fixture—appeared to catch him with an elbow.

VAR checked and cleared the incident, and D’Agostino was booked soon after for barging into the Victory midfielder.

The Roar started brighter in the second half and manufactured a fine chance when Michael Ruhs’s stinging cross was cushioned into the path of Chris Long who blazed his left-footed effort over the bar.

The introduction of Santos prompted a small resurgence for the hosts and the Brazillian almost saw his in-swinging cross flicked in by Nduka but Bouzanis dropped sharply to his left and kept it out.

With fifteen minutes to play, pantomime villain, D’Agostino shared a sharp one-two with Samuel Klein and stretched out to convert his deflected pull-back and level the scoring.

A flurry of penalty box scrambles preceded a largely uneventful six minutes of stoppage time and a nervy finish from Melbourne Victory will leave them ruing their inability to turn attacking promise into substance.

Their campaign will continue with a blockbuster Melbourne Derby against Melbourne City on the 21st of February. Brisbane face Sydney FC earlier the same day.