Melbourne Victory 1-1 Wellington Phoenix
By Alyce Collett (13/12/24)
Above: Manaia Elliot scored the late equaliser for Wellington. Photo: Wellington Phoenix
Wellington Phoenix achieved an almighty escape against Melbourne Victory, pulling out a one all draw from the clutches of defeat.
After Alana Jancevski slotted a penalty home early in the second half, Manaia Elliott pinched one back for the Phoenix in the dying seconds of regulation time to earn the draw.
Victory did much of the attacking early, more often choosing to go the aerial route instead of weaving their way past the Phoenix defence.
The likes of Nikki Flannery and Jancevski were looking dangerous early, but thanks to some stellar keeping from Carolina Vilao, the Victory attackers were unable to put one in the back of the net.
The Victory were a lot calmer with the ball in possession – whether in attack or defence – and the Phoenix did not really look threatening at all early. Wellington did have two decent chances in the first half, but they well dealt with by Victory keeper Courtney Newbon and the rest of her defence.
Despite there being an obvious difference in amount of time on the ball it was a really free flowing first half, with not too many stoppages to note.
As the half progressed the Phoenix defensive unit – lead by Mackenzie Barry – became more cohesive and connected, proving harder for Victory to navigate and therefore making their attacking plays less and less threatening, despite not really dropping in frequency.
However, up the other end, Grace Jale and Olivia Fergusson were being too well marked by Claudia Bunge and Kayla Morrison to pose any threat for the Nix.
As halftime drew closer, the path to the deadlock breaking goal was no clearer than it had been 45 minutes prior.
The half time stats told an interesting tale. Victory dominated possession, leading 70.8% to just 29.2%. However, the shots were a lot more even, with Victory only leading that three to one. Despite this, Victory’s attacking play looked more dangerous and likely to get a shot than the Phoenix’s had.
The second half began as free-flowing as the first had been, but a mere five minutes in Victory finally found some reward for their possession dominance. After Flannery was brought down in the box, Jancesvski slotted the subsequent penalty into the bottom corner to hand the hosts the lead.
This goal seemed to give the home side a spring in their step, with Gielnik having the confidence to shoot from outside the 18-yard box. The goal also saw the Phoenix lift their physicality, much to the displeasure at times of Victory players and fans alike.
Lara Wall almost found the equaliser for the Phoenix in the 63rd minute, but her shot went just narrowly wide of the goal. Moments later Victory got within inches of a second goal but some made scrambling defensive work right on the line kept the ball from going through. Second half substitute Emma Main also had a chance just as good as Wall’s later in the half, but unfortunately for the Phoenix it ultimately had the same result.
As the second half drew to a close, Victory kept peppering the Phoenix goal but as hard as they tried, they could not quite sneak it past Vilao and the Phoenix defence for a second goal.
Just as it looked like Victory would run out winners, Elliott popped out of nowhere and headed the ball into the back of the net with some pace to equal up proceedings with only about half a minute left in regulation time.
Teams: MELBOURNE VICTORY (4-3-1-2): Newbon, Wilson, Bunge, Morrison, Goad, Murphy, Flannery, Lowe, Chidiac, Jancevski, Gielnik. Substitutes: O’Grady, D’Appolonia, Briedis, Candy, Pickett.
Scorer: Jancevski 51’.
WELLINGTON PHOENIX (4-2-3-1): Vilao, Jaber, Barry, Kelly, McCutcheon, Jale, Ferguson, Whinham, Brazendale, Longo, Wall. Substitutes: Neary, McMeeken, Elliott, Tanaka, Main.
Scorer: Elliott 90′.
Referee: Molly Godsell.
Attendance: 725.
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