Adelaide United 1-3 Melbourne Victory
By Alyce Collett 4/5/25
Above: Melbourne Victory players celebrate a goal against Adelaide United. Photo: A-Leagues
Melbourne Victory have one foot in the 2024/25 A-League Womens Grand Final after winning the first leg of their semi final 3-1 over Adelaide United.
Despite the scoreline it was overall a very even match, with Victory just able to capitalise on some Adelaide mistakes at the back to nab some late goals.
Emily Gielnik first put the Victory ahead before Erin Healy cancelled out that lead minutes later, then a Claudia Bunge brace put the Victory back in front late to give the visitors the ascendency heading into next week.
There was a metaphorical fog of nerves over both sides in the opening minutes of the first half, with neither side quite showing their usual polish.
Victory were dominating the territory game but did not quite have the polish when dishing off their shots, whereas Adelaide’s problem was not the danger of their shots, but the frequency of them, and also the home side were looking shaky at times playing out from the back.
The visitors were however counting their lucky stars Kayla Morrsion was playing for them and not the opposition though, as her headers and tackling ability saving her side on a number of occasions.
As the half progressed both sides had a number of very close chances on goal, but some resolute defending from both sets of defenders meant that neither side could manage to find the back of the net.
Melbourne Victory were eventually able to pickpocket the Adelaide defence and it came from none other than Courtney Newbon, whose long ball from defence set up Gielnik, who smashed home a shot to give Victory the lead.
However their joy was short lived after Adelaide equalised minutes later, when Healy pounced on a deflection in close to strike home a goal of her own.
It was an at times chaotic end to the first half, but in the end the scores were still even at the break.
The second half started as free flowing as the first half had ended, with both sides spending plenty of time in their attacking end.
The first substitutions from both sides were intriguing ones, and perhaps gave an indication as to how both coaches were approaching this match with one eye onto next week.
When Adelaide were forced to sub Tiana Karambasis, they chose to sub on an attacker in Chelsea Dawber instead of a defender, while Melbourne Victory chose to be overly cautious with Emily Gielnik when she first showed some potential injury concerns.
Both players that came on in those subsitutions – Dawber and Holly Furphy – did bring some spark into the game, both creating some excitement and dangerous play.
Although for a while it did not seem like any more goals were coming, Victory managed to pop up and pick up a second goal for the match after Bunge executed a trademark header to head home an Alana Murphy corner.
Bunge was not done scoring, heading in another goal 10 minutes later – this time off an Alex Chidiac corner.
Bunge’s second goal and some superb keeping from Newbon helped give their side some breathing space heading into the second leg next week despite some strong attempts late from the Reds.
Teams: ADELAIDE UNITED (3-4-3): Jenkins, E.Hodgson, León, McNamara, Tonkin, Karambasis, Morgan, Condon, Holmes, Healy, Worts. Substitutes: Dewey, Dawber, I.Hodgson, Sasaki, Bowler, Healy, Melegh.
Goals: Healy 40’
MELBOURNE VICTORY (4-4-2): Newbon, Wilson, Bunge, Murphy, Chidiac, Flannery, D’Appolonia, Gielnik, Morrison, Jancevski, Lowe. Substitutes: O’Grady, Curtis, Furphy, Young, Pickett, Candy.
Goals: Gielnik 38’, Bunge 77’, 88’
Referee: Caitlin Williams.
Attendance: 4,372
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