Melbourne City 1-0 Incheon Red Angels
by Alyce Collett (21/5/25)
Above: Bryleeh Henry strides forward against Incheon Red Angels tonight. Photo: Melbourne City.
Melbourne City are through to the final of the AFC Women’s Champions League after a thrilling 1-0 win over Korea Republic’s Incheon Red Angels in tonight’s semi-final.
It was a very even match for much of the match, but a final-second screamer from Shelby McMahon broke the deadlock and sees City move on to face Wuhan Jiangda in Saturday night’s final.
Both sides were finding the space really well early, finding free players and using the wings with relative ease.
However, it was the Red Angels who looked the more likely to score early, with their speedy forwards such as Yuka Toriumi and Kim So-eun able to work their way past the City defenders and get themselves in dangerous positions.
When City did find themselves with back-to-back scoring opportunities, one thing they were not afraid to do was shoot from distance, with Bryleeh Henry and Leticia McKenna both not afraid to put their powerful shots to use.
The defenders were the true stars for both teams, though, with the match playing freely and end to end for much of the half, but resolute defending denied even the closest of shooting attempts.
City, in particular, were certainly spending plenty of time in their attacking third, but just could not find players in enough space or set players up with strong enough passes.
As the half progressed and half time came closer, neither side really looked like they were going to open the scoring.
The Red Angels started the second half more on the front foot than City were, but just could not keep their shots on goal down enough for them to go into the back of the net.
Up the other end, City were trying to free up Holly McNamara and really get her more into the game, but attacking play after attacking play, she was continuously outnumbered by the Red Angels’ defenders.
As the second half progressed, the ball continued to freely flow from one end to the other, but neither side had a realistic chance to open the scoring.
There was a nervy energy at times during the final 10 minutes of the match, and there was this sense that one tiny mistake was all that it was going to take to open up the game and get the scoring started.
The Red Angels went close on a number of occasions, but could not quite find the back of the net.
Just as it was looking like the game was destined for extra time, McMahon backed herself and scored a long bomb with mere seconds left in stoppage time to break the hearts of City’s highly fancied opponents and keep City’s Champions League hopes alive.
They now advance to Sunday’s final to face the Chinese side Wuhan Jiangda, who defeated Hồ Chí Minh City 2-0 in the other semi-final. The Final will be played at Wuhan’s 54,000 capacity Sports Centre stadium.
Teams: MELBOURNE CITY (4-4-2): Mieres, Roestbakken, Stott, Otto, Apostolakis, McKenna, Hughes, Davidson, Henry, McNamara, Speckmaier. Substitutes: Varley, Harvey, Pollicina, Murray, McMahon, Meyers, Bosch, Karic, Accardo, Barbieri, Vlajnic, Rossi.
Scorer: McMahon 90+4’.
INCHEON RED ANGELS (4-4-2): M.Kim, S.J.Lim, H.Mun, Y.Ko, H.Yong, C.Jang, M.Kim, Y.Oh, Y.Toriumi, S.M.Kim, S.Kim. Substitutes: Seong, J.Kim, Kang, Seo, Park, Choi, D.Lee, S.Lee, Namgung, M.S.Kim, Suzuki, Bae.
Referee: Pansa Chaisanit (THA).
Attendance: 1,026.
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