Sydney FC star Milos Ninkovic says his side ‘deserved’ all three points as the Sky Blues earned a last-minute 2-1 win over fierce rivals Melbourne Victory.
The Serbian-born maestro netted in injury-time at the Sydney Cricket Ground to gift the home side their first Big Blue win of the Hyundai A-League season.
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Speaking to a-league.com.au post-match, the 34-year old said his side was far superior on the night despite scores being locked late on.
“It’s a very big three points for us,” Ninkovic said.
“It was a tough game especially in the second half…but I think we deserved three points especially how we played in the first half.
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“We dominated, we created chances, they had one shot on goal and they scored. As I said I think we deserved three points tonight.”
Ninkovic, who converted the winning penalty in the 2016/17 Grand Final, said it was critical to get all three points as Sydney make a last-ditch bid for the Premiership.
“It’s very important [to beat Victory],” he said,
“They beat us in the first two games but I think that we played very well in the first two games, they were lucky but it is very important now we are only three points behind Perth and only three games left and we play Perth at home so anything is possible.”
Captain Alex Brosque echoed the midfielder’s thoughts, revealing that the Sky Blues didn’t want to change their approach despite losing twice to their fierce rivals this season.
“It was very important to be the result in the end I think,” Brosque told a-league.com.au.
“They’ve had it over us but I think that’s just been on the scoreboard…we took a lot of confidence from the way that we played against them in the last two so we didn’t change anything, we played the exact same way but tonight the result went our way.”
The veteran praised Ninkovic’s strike as well as Brandon O’Neill’s thumping opener in the sixth minute.
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“The first one we can’t say it was a fluke because he’s done it before and he practices them to be fair to him everyday in training,” he said.
“He hits them so sweet, right foot and left foot so it was a good reward for him with that strike tonight. Milos, the goal that he got, he deserved it.
“He’s been incredible he just hasn’t got as many goals this year as his play has deserved but to win a game like this, no one deserves it more.”
