Victory and City shared the spoils in the final regular season Melbourne derby, the game finishing 2-2 at AAMI Park.
The away side started the better of the two teams, with referee Chris Beath showing plenty of yellow cards early on.
Despite having all of the momentum, it was City who opened the scoring through golden boot leader Bruno Fornaroli. Victory’s defence was in all sorts as the Uruguyan started the move just as well as he finished it. Touches from Aaron Mooy and Anthony Caceres eventually led to Fornaorli chipping the ball over the oncoming Danny Vukovic.
Wow.
What is better, Fornaroli's rabona or his little dink finish? 😷
Please stop that. #MelbDerby #fornaroli ⚽️ pic.twitter.com/Iak488bYto
— Dangerous Attack Bet (@dangerousattack) February 13, 2016
Their lead didn’t last long with Victory able to break on the counter-attack. Kosta Barbarouses was played into acres of space but could not find a way past Thomas Sorensen. Fahid Ben Khalfallah was able to pounce on the rebound and his awakward shot found its way into the back of the net. Fornaroli secured his brace in the opening-half wih a glancing header off a Mooy free-kick.
The men in navy could not have started the second-half any better, with Gui Finkler scoring off a corner in the 47th minute.
Finkler almost had a double of his own but his free-kick goal was not given despite replays showing the ball was over the line. City finished the match with 10-men after Anthony Caceres being shown a red card in his first game back from suspension due to a red card.
The back four makes sense
John van’t Schip decided to do away with his experimental back three for the more traditional back four, consiting of newest recruit Alex Wilkinson alongside Patrick Kisnorbo in the centre of defence.
While the Victory were pressing early and pushed the City defence throughout the game, they looked solid and were not found out easily.
The performance should have proved to van’t Schip that the back four is the way to go for the rest of the season.
Goal line technology needed ASAP
It is a debate which only appears when a poor decision is made and tonight’s match was no exception.Gui Finkler’s free-kick in the 55th minute curled beautifully and hit the cross bar, bounced down and then out.
To the naked eye, no one could say for certain whether or not the ball had fully crossed the line, but the beauty of TV replays showed that the whole ball was in fact over the line and, consquently, the Victory were denied a goal.
Goal line technology, or even goal line officials, are needed to ensure that these kinds of mistakes are not made. While goal line incidents do not happen every week, they happen often enough – and usually lead to incorrect deicisions being made – to warrant their presence at games.
Fornaroli is out of this world
He hasn’t even been in the league a full season yet, but Bruno Foraroli is without a doubt the most exciting striker in the competition. He has been scoring for fun at an alarmingly fast rate and no team seems to be able to stop him.
fastest 1st 17 goals:
18 games Mark Viduka, Melb Knights 1993-94
18 " BRUNO FORNAROLI #MelbDerby 31'
21 " Dixie Deans, Adelaide City 1977-78— andrew howe (@AndyHowe_statto) February 13, 2016
Regardless of whether you support City or not, watching Fornaroli in the league has been nothing short of a delight. Very few fans at the beginning of the season would have known much about, let alone predict the impact he has had on City’s attack but the competition as a whole.
His rabona in the lead up to City’s first and his finishes on both of the goals were stunning to watch. Fornaroli in the A-League is nothing but excellent for all involved.
Level pegging creates an excellent derby
The build up to this game saw much discussion about how, for the first time in a long time, both the Mebourne clubs seemed to be on par with each other in terms of onfield performances – a point which was proved further by the fact that the teams sat third and fourth respectively on equal points, City only ahead on goal difference.
The eveness of these sides was on display and it meant that fans and neutrals alike were treated to an absolute show. The sides went tit for tat midway through the first-half with goals to Fornaroli and Khalfallah. Finkler got in the act in the second and both teams continued to attack intensely.
Caceres’ red card added another level to this game. Ultimately it was another great advertuisement for the A-League.
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