Melbourne Victory are through to the Isuzu UTE A-League Grand Final after a stunning 2-1 aggregate triumph over Premiers Auckland FC in the Semi-Finals. Post-game, Victory head coach Arthur Diles explained how a midweek tactical shift due to injury absentees was key to the upset result.
When Melbourne Victory’s Brendan Hamill suffered a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in the first leg of his side’s Semi-Final clash with Auckland FC, alarm bells were ringing for head coach Arthur Diles.
With club captain and fellow central defender Roderick Miranda ruled out of the first leg with an injury of his own, attention turned to how Diles would set up his team for the return leg, with Victory chasing a one-goal deficit.
The Victory boss elected to deploy a change in shape, utilising a back five against the Black Knights at Go Media Stadium on Saturday night.
The formation switch caught Auckland by surprise, and set Victory on course for a shock 2-0 win, and a 2-1 aggregate triumph over the reigning Premiers, to progress to next weekend’s Grand Final.
MATCH REPORT: Victory STUN Premiers Auckland FC to book their spot in Isuzu UTE A-League Grand Final
“They changed their system – we weren’t expecting that,” said defeated Auckland head coach Steve Corica post-game.
“I think that took us a little bit of time to get used to, and then when we did, I thought we got back into the game.
“I’ve got to give credit to Melbourne Victory, I thought they played extremely well.
“They changed their system, they went with the back five, and it was hard to break down, and had some big boys at the back when we were knocking balls into the box, (and) they were first there.”
MATCH REPORT: Victory STUN Premiers Auckland FC to book their spot in Isuzu UTE A-League Grand Final
The fluid five-man defensive combination reaped rewards for Victory who kept a clean sheet against Auckland and scored two second-half goals to overturn their aggregate deficit, with Zinedine Machach and Bruno Fornaroli – a player who has started just nine times this season – both finding the back of the net to send Victory to the Grand Final.
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Victory hadn’t scored a single goal against Auckland in their three prior meetings this season.
“We changed the system tonight and trained something new all week,” Diles explained post-game.
“Our performances against them in the past three games were good performances. The performances didn’t let us down, but we fell short in a couple of areas. Sometimes, that was a bit of a lack of quality from us on the day, and obviously great defending from them as well, and them being a great side.
“This week, we worked on something a little bit different, which I thought we executed quite well. We had to come up with something different today, and we did.”
For the second consecutive season, Victory have travelled to New Zealand for a second-leg tie and pulled off an upset win to progress to the Grand Final.
Last season it was an extra-time triumph over Wellington Phoenix that sent Victory to the title decider – this time around, Auckland were the victims of a club that can never be written off in the high stakes of a Finals Series fixture.
Victory are now set to contend the Isuzu UTE A-League Grand Final while Premiers Auckland bow out of action after a Premiership triumph in the club’s first-ever league campaign.
Diles was all class in his post-match assessment of Auckland’s season, praising the club that, on Saturday night, attracted more than 29,000 fans to Go Media Stadium for the Semi-Final tie, after averaging more than 18,000 fans through their regular season home games – the highest of any club in the competition.
“I just want to congratulate them,” Diles said.
“Steve (Corica), his players and his coaching staff and the whole club on the tremendous job they’ve done, what they’ve brought to the league as a club, what they’ve achieved on the park as a club, that’s not easy to do and they’ve done ver so well to achieve what they have.
“The fans here tonight and all season have been fantastic for the league, and it was beautiful to play in front of 30,000 fans tonight.
“It was even nicer to spoil the party.”
