Early Cohen strike earns Melbourne City A-League title in derby clash

RNZ News

2 days ago

Melbourne City players celebrate
Photo:
ROB PREZIOSO / PHOTOSPORT
Melbourne City lifted the A-League Championship for the second time in the club's history on Saturday as a 1-0 Grand Final win over crosstown rivals Melbourne Victory secured the title for Aurelio Vidmar's side.
Yonatan Cohen's 10th minute strike ensured the City Football Group-owned outfit shaded a tense all-Melbourne clash - the first derby meeting in the decider in the league's 20th season - to add the title to their only previous win in 2021.
"The derby is always like this, it was always going to be physical out there," said City defender Nathaniel Atkinson.
"We knew if we matched them with the fight, we could let our football do the talking, and once we got that goal we knew, with our defence, that we could keep a clean sheet."
City weathered Victory's early pressure in front of almost 30,000 fans at Melbourne Rectangular Stadium to take the lead, Cohen reacting quickest to beat Jack Duncan from close range after Max Caputo's effort had come back off the crossbar.
Mathew Leckie threw himself at full stretch to block a goal-bound strike from Victory's Zinedine Machach 10 minutes later to maintain the lead, and the Australia international was denied at the other end when his header was gathered on the line by Duncan.
Victory, also runners-up in last year's decider, pushed to pull level before the interval, with City goalkeeper Patrick Beach diving to his right to save another Machach attempt while Roderick Miranda headed Daniel Arzani's freekick wide.
Duncan had to be at his sharpest to keep out Cohen's curling effort from distance a little over a minute after the restart and, as the half approached the midway point, Caputo snatched at his attempt when he had the time and space to double the lead.
Cohen should have put the result beyond doubt with 14 minutes remaining when, unmarked, the Israel international headed harmlessly across the face of the Victory goal.
That miss was to prove academic as City kept their neighbours at bay to win the championship, having finished second behind Auckland FC in the regular season standings earlier this month.
"It's really tough being in this position for two years in a row, but hopefully next year we can go again," said Victory captain Miranda.
"They had one chance in the first half and scored and in the second half they defended really well. But this is football."
-Reuters