The recovery of the Melbourne Derby as one of the A-League men’s most hard-fought Premier League matches took it a step further after Melbourne City and Melbourne Victory played a 1-1 draw at AAMI Park.
After the City’s 6-0 and 7-0 defeat of the victory in the first two derbies of 2020-21 – probably the lowest points in the victory history – Saturday night’s result represented a third straight stalemate between the two sides .
And seeing the progress, Victory coach Tony Popovic thinks his side now has what it takes to challenge defending champions.
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“Overall, it is a very good performance,” he said.
“Today we showed progress from the last match.
“We could win the last derby. Today we should win. That’s the difference. We should win today.”
With 18,080 supporters on hand, it was the second straight derby played in front of one of the biggest crowds of this ALM season.
18 minutes into the game, a swerving free kick by Marco Foljas almost resulted in the home team taking the lead, but the shot glanced harmlessly off the frame of the goal.
But City were able to respond at half-time through Curtis Good’s header from a corner.
Emotions blew through the second penalty: Scott Jamieson and Nick D’Agostino, Stefan Colakovski and Jason Davidson got into a fight before the two sides engaged in a shoving match after the final whistle.
“(It was) bagging things. It’s nothing. It’s emotions,” said City coach Patrick Kisnorbo.
“It felt like a derby in the first game (of the season), there was a lot on the line, and it felt that way today,” Popovic added.
“The intensity was very high throughout the game – from start to finish.”
Despite landing only a return to Australia on Thursday after being knocked out of the Asian Champions League in extra time by Japanese striker Visell Kobe, the victory frustrated the city’s highly-motivated attack and looked dangerous in the transition.
City, on the other hand, finished the two halves strongly and had a myriad of chances to win it late through Jamie Maclaren, Colakovski and Good – the latter hitting the post.
“In the end, we could have won it,” Kisnorbo said.
“It was a tough football match and probably good to watch the neutral.”
Top of the ALM after Western United’s loss to Sydney, the city will travel to Brisbane on Wednesday, while the victory falls to sixth after that Sky Blue victory, against Western in another derby that night.
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