Melbourne Victory have claimed bragging rights after a 2-1 triumph over Melbourne City in the derby at AAMI Park on Saturday night.
Besart Berisha wrote the perfect script for the Victory after scoring the winning goal (78’) after recovering from a Tim Cahill opening header (16’) with Marco Rojas scoring the equaliser eight minutes later (24’).
The Albanian’s goal also meant he levelled the all-time goal scoring record of Archie Thompson in the A-League, now sitting on 90 goals.
It could have been more, the star striker had a golden opportunity to equal Thompson’s record in the opening six minutes, Rojas’ ball found the Albanian who looked through with the final shot shanked wide.
Ten minutes later Victory would rue missing the opportunity as City hit the lead, Luke Brattan’s corner managed to find Cahill in the box who beat Leigh Broxham to finish with a trademark header.
The boys in blue hit back in the 24th minute, Tongyik dealt with a Jason Geria cross poorly which allowed Troisi to knock the ball back to Rojas to equalise out of nothing.
Berisha nearly placed Victory in front a minute later as he combined with Rojas once again, but the final shot was hit straight at Dean Bouzanis.
A look at some of the key full-time stats. Like last week, we had less possession but prevailed on the scoreboard #MelbDerby 1-2 #ALeague pic.twitter.com/pqRh6KZpyV
— Melbourne Victory (@gomvfc) December 17, 2016
The Albanian had an opportunity in the 35th minute as he received the ball in the box and was sandwiched between Tongyik and Neil Kilkenny, which resulted in an initial missed shot and a subsequent appeal for a penalty which was not paid.
City began the second half on the front foot after conceding a cluster of chances in the first half and nearly found the lead as Fernando Brandan’s cross landed to Franjic who helped onto Fornaroli but the final shot was skied.
With 15 minutes remaining Troisi’s ball found Ingham with space, however the final shot was snuffed out for a corner.
Victory would find the lead, through Berisha in the 78th minute courtesy of a Rojas low cross to win the game for Victory and equal Thompson’s goal scoring record. Replays however showed the Albanian was offside.
Troisi nearly sealed it for Victory with four minutes left after Berisha played the Socceroo through, however Bouzanis denied a point blank range shot.
Moments later Franjic had a shot on the edge of the box which forced a diving save from Thomas to keep it out.
From the corner City would continue to press on the edge of the box but to no avail as the Victory came out big winners on the night.
Victory are second on the table with a game in hand as they travel to Central Coast next Sunday while City face Perth Glory.
JvS: It's still a long way to go. We've had a few tough weeks with big games and this one was one too much.
— Melbourne City FC (@MelbourneCity) December 17, 2016
Melbourne City: 20. BOUZANIS Dean, 3. ROSE Josh (2. MUSCAT Manny 61’), 5. FRANJIC Ivan, 8. KILKENNY Neil, 9. COLAZO Nico, 11. KAMAU Bruce (12. FITZGERALD Nick 80’), 17. CAHILL Tim, 21. TONGYIK Ruon, 23. FORNAROLI Bruno, 26. BRATTAN Luke, 27. BRANDAN Fernando
Melbourne Victory: 20. THOMAS Lawrence, 2. GERIA Jason, 6. BROXHAM Leigh, 7. ROJAS Marco (9. BEISTER Maxi 85’), 8. BERISHA Besart (5. GEORGIEVSKI Daniel 92’), 10. TROISI James, 13. BOZANIC Ollie, 14. BEN KHALFALLAH Fahid (23. INGHAM Jai 66’), 15. BARO Alan, 17. DONACHIE James, 21. VALERI Carl
Referee: Jarred Gillett
Attendance: 24,706
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