Latest news with #MelbourneDerby
Courier-Mail
2 days ago
- Sport
- Courier-Mail
A-League grand final, Melbourne Victory v City live: news, scores, updates
Melbourne City are A-League champions for a second time after holding their nerve to deny local rivals Melbourne Victory a record-equalling fifth grand final triumph on Saturday night. Yonatan Cohen's 10th-minute goal, the third fastest in men's grand final history, was the difference in the showpiece conclusion to the competition's 20th season watched by an AAMI Park sporting-record crowd of 29,902. The matchwinner would have had himself a brace but headed a gilt-edged opportunity wide from Marco Tilio's cross with a quarter of an hour remaining. Aurelio Vidmar's side were nevertheless content with their advantage, albeit slender, surviving a handball shout against Germán Ferreyra and sticking rigidly to the principles which have guided them to a fourth shot at glory in six years. City's Yonatan Cohen celebrates his goal. Picture: Getty Images The only adjustment was the super-human level of tenacity with which they performed - epitomised by Mathew Leckie sporting a bandage to patch up a busted nose after taking a boot to the face. City pack punch in end-to-end first half Victory, backed by a majority crowd, many of whom had been inside more than an hour before kick-off, endeavoured to feed off a combination of this fervour and momentum from their surprise semi-final win, with Daniel Arzani and Zinédine Machach having plenty of touches in the final third, whilst a loose Patrick Beach touch gifted them an early corner. But their supporters were soon silenced and, because of the early promise, shellshocked, as Cohen read the play intelligently once Aziz Behich's cute backheel had given Andreas Kuen space to centre for Max Caputo, and was placed to pounce on his teammate's effort crashing out off the crossbar. Nine minutes later, Jack Duncan had to be alert under his crossbar to keep out a towering header from Socceroo Leckie making his first start since March. Meanwhile, Beach had settled his nerves and at full stretch, got gloves to Machach's fizzing as the last line of City's tigerish defences. City's Aziz Behich and Victory's Zinadine Machach compete for the ball. Picture: Getty Images No more bad luck against the Vucks for Vidmar The outcome exorcises any demons lurking in Vidmar's mind from 2009's grand final when - facing Victory - his Adelaide United side suffered an early red card in a contest they would go on to lose by a single goal. City's first championship triumph in 2021 will not be forgotten, but this glory - secured by winning the first-ever Melbourne Derby grand final - will be etched into folklore. It also provided a full stop to the run of seven matches without success over Victory, although in these circumstances, an exclamation mark would be more fitting. Tempers fray during the grand final. Picture: Getty Images Devastation for Diles despite tremendous turnaround Victory's season was at a crossroads after Patrick Kisnorbo left for Yokohama F. Marinos on the eve of the Christmas derby, and assistant boss Arthur Diles was thrust into the hot seat. It then appeared in reverse as his tenure started with six winless outings. But three successes from four steered them back toward top-six contention, and when it comes to finals football, they are a different beast. Driven by Diles' 'kill or be killed' mantra, they ended Western Sydney Wanderers' 12-game unbeaten streak in the elimination match, and caused another surprise by overturning a first-leg deficit away to Premiers Auckland FC. They could not, however, become the first team to claim the championship after finishing outside of the top four and missing the acceleration of the injured Nishan Velupillay, struggled to penetrate 2024/25's meanest defence. With the game slipping away, Josh Rawlins headed their clearest opening off target. Originally published as A-League grand final, Melbourne Victory v City live: news, scores, updates
Herald Sun
2 days ago
- Sport
- Herald Sun
A-League grand final, Melbourne Victory v City live: news, scores, updates
Melbourne City are A-League champions for a second time after holding their nerve to deny local rivals Melbourne Victory a record-equalling fifth grand final triumph on Saturday night. Yonatan Cohen's 10th-minute goal, the third fastest in men's grand final history, was the difference in the showpiece conclusion to the competition's 20th season watched by an AAMI Park sporting-record crowd of 29,902. The matchwinner would have had himself a brace but headed a gilt-edged opportunity wide from Marco Tilio's cross with a quarter of an hour remaining. Aurelio Vidmar's side were nevertheless content with their advantage, albeit slender, surviving a handball shout against Germán Ferreyra and sticking rigidly to the principles which have guided them to a fourth shot at glory in six years. City's Yonatan Cohen celebrates his goal. Picture: Getty Images The only adjustment was the super-human level of tenacity with which they performed - epitomised by Mathew Leckie sporting a bandage to patch up a busted nose after taking a boot to the face. City pack punch in end-to-end first half Victory, backed by a majority crowd, many of whom had been inside more than an hour before kick-off, endeavoured to feed off a combination of this fervour and momentum from their surprise semi-final win, with Daniel Arzani and Zinédine Machach having plenty of touches in the final third, whilst a loose Patrick Beach touch gifted them an early corner. But their supporters were soon silenced and, because of the early promise, shellshocked, as Cohen read the play intelligently once Aziz Behich's cute backheel had given Andreas Kuen space to centre for Max Caputo, and was placed to pounce on his teammate's effort crashing out off the crossbar. Nine minutes later, Jack Duncan had to be alert under his crossbar to keep out a towering header from Socceroo Leckie making his first start since March. Meanwhile, Beach had settled his nerves and at full stretch, got gloves to Machach's fizzing as the last line of City's tigerish defences. City's Aziz Behich and Victory's Zinadine Machach compete for the ball. Picture: Getty Images No more bad luck against the Vucks for Vidmar The outcome exorcises any demons lurking in Vidmar's mind from 2009's grand final when - facing Victory - his Adelaide United side suffered an early red card in a contest they would go on to lose by a single goal. City's first championship triumph in 2021 will not be forgotten, but this glory - secured by winning the first-ever Melbourne Derby grand final - will be etched into folklore. It also provided a full stop to the run of seven matches without success over Victory, although in these circumstances, an exclamation mark would be more fitting. Tempers fray during the grand final. Picture: Getty Images Devastation for Diles despite tremendous turnaround Victory's season was at a crossroads after Patrick Kisnorbo left for Yokohama F. Marinos on the eve of the Christmas derby, and assistant boss Arthur Diles was thrust into the hot seat. It then appeared in reverse as his tenure started with six winless outings. But three successes from four steered them back toward top-six contention, and when it comes to finals football, they are a different beast. Driven by Diles' 'kill or be killed' mantra, they ended Western Sydney Wanderers' 12-game unbeaten streak in the elimination match, and caused another surprise by overturning a first-leg deficit away to Premiers Auckland FC. They could not, however, become the first team to claim the championship after finishing outside of the top four and missing the acceleration of the injured Nishan Velupillay, struggled to penetrate 2024/25's meanest defence. With the game slipping away, Josh Rawlins headed their clearest opening off target. Originally published as A-League grand final, Melbourne Victory v City live: news, scores, updates
News.com.au
3 days ago
- General
- News.com.au
Anarchy unfolds on Melbourne streets ahead of A-League Grand Final
The streets of Melbourne looked more like the set of a Hollywood blockbuster on Saturday night ahead of the A-League Grand Final. A haze of smoke filled the streets as Melbourne City and Melbourne Victory fans marched through Richmond towards AAMI Park. A large police presence did little to quell the chaos as flares were let off all over the place ahead of the Derby decider. Swan Street in Richmond was overtaken by football fans as police lined the streets with images looking like something taken from a Mad Max instalment. As reported by the Herald Sun, large anti-police chants could be heard coming from the G bar shortly after 5pm. Once the fan march got underway the flares began to fly as more police arrived to keep things under control. Tensions however began to escalate as the crowd reached the Precint Hotel on their way towards the stadium. Fans ultimately made their way into AAMI Park to witness the first ever Derby Grand Final between the cross-town rivals. City fans didn't have to wait long for the celebrations to erupt with Yonatan Cohen finding the back of the net inside the opening 10 minutes. A scintillating run down the left side by Aziz Behich set up Andreas Kuen who crossed into the middle of the box. The cross found Max Caputo who's shot slammed off the crossbar and rebounded to Cohen who made no mistake with his strike. Despite their best efforts Victory could not get an equaliser with City holding the 1-0 advantage at halftime.
ABC News
3 days ago
- General
- ABC News
A-League Men grand final live: Melbourne City faces Victory — scores, stats and commentary
For the first time in A-League Men history, the grand final features a Melbourne derby between City and Victory. Follow live.
The Guardian
3 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
Melbourne City v Melbourne Victory: A-League Men grand final
Update: Date: 2025-05-31T09:13:09.000Z Title: Martin Pegan Content: sets the scene: Australian football has been here many times before, with visions of a grand spectacle that might reignite the passion of casual observers. The Mariners' back-to-back championship triumphs will live long in the memory but so too does the last time Victory and City met under the glare of the spotlight in the wake of the Socceroos' stirring 2022 World Cup campaign. With fans railing against the APL's decision to break with tradition and hold three grand finals in Sydney – a deal that would have concluded with this year's decider – the Melbourne derby descended into humiliating chaos when spectators invaded the pitch and forced the match to be abandoned for player safety reasons. This time, with no new clouds hanging over the competition and the grand final being given clear air in Melbourne, the focus can turn to matters on the pitch and a tussle between two evenly matched teams playing for more than just championship glory. Update: Date: 2025-05-31T09:09:36.000Z Title: Content: Plenty of pyro and police on the streets of Melbourne this evening. Update: Date: 2025-05-31T09:01:54.000Z Title: Preamble Content: Hello everybody and welcome to live coverage of the A-League Men grand final between Melbourne City and Melbourne Victory. Kick-off at AAMI Park is 7.40pm. It's the biggest night on the domestic football calendar and the biggest night for club football in Melbourne in the A-League era. There's still an awful lot wrong with the game in Australia and the cut-through of the local competition but it's events like this that have the potential to show how the A-League can thrive. City have been building for this moment all season. A fifth grand final in six years comes as no surprise to a squad that has only spent one week outside the top six on the ladder, and finished their premiership campaign with seven wins from 11 matches. Their semi-final was a two-legged affair, but was over after one when they put three unanswered goals past Western United. Victory, by contrast, have come from the clouds to make it this far. They didn't win a match between rounds eight and 15 as they came to terms with the departure of manager Patrick Kisnorbo, but his former assistant Arthur Diles picked up the baton and turned Victory into one of the form teams of the second half of the season. Even so, they still had to win away at the higher ranked Western Sydney Wanderers in the first week of the finals, and then overturn a 1-0 first-leg deficit in their semi-final away at premiership winners Auckland FC. Victory will fancy their chances of their underdog run continuing. A nominal away fixture, they will have the majority of the crowd at the sold out AAMI Park behind them. And they have not lost any of the past eight derbies – a record stretching back to the shameful night in December 2022 when Victory fans invaded the pitch and attacked City goalkeeper Tom Glover. A-League bosses will be praying to all the Gods such scenes are not repeated tonight.
