Melbourne City 1-1 Wuhan Jiangda
(4-5 on penalties)
By Alyce Collett 25/5/25
Above: Alexia Apostolakis. Photo: Melbourne City
Melbourne City has been denied the fairy tale finish to their Asian Champions League campaign, losing to Wuhan Jiangda in a penalty shoot out.
In an at times chaotic match, it ultimately finish 1-1 after 120 minutes after Wang Shuang’s extra time goal cancelled out Shelby McMahon’s opener. It was in the penalty shoot out where the heartbreak ultimately came for City, who went down 5-4 after some clutch saves from Wuhan keeper Chen Chen, who remarkably only came on at half time after first choice keeper Ding Xuan was injured in the first half.
Possession was pretty even between the two sides early in the proceedings, but it was Wuhan who were able to get more shots away early.
One thing that was clear early was that if Melbourne City were going to win, they were going to need to be patient to try and work through Wuhan’s low block, and City were certainly showing plenty of patience early.
Both sides did eventually get their shooting boots on, with the crafty forwards from both sides starting to get into the game. For Melbourne City it was Holly McNamara who proved the biggest threat, while for Wuhan Terry Engesha really looked dangerous on a number of occasions.
City did plenty of attacking at the death of the half, but just could not quite work their way past the Wuhan defence.
Wuhan then almost countered up the other end with a Wang long bomb, but a stellar save from Malena Mires ensured it remained a scoreless draw at the break.
The half time stats really did show how even the first 45 minutes of play had been.
Although City had seven percent of the possession, both sides had registered five shots on goal, with City only getting one more of their shots on target than Wuhan did.
A well structured defence from Wuhan continued to be a thorn in the side for Melbourne City, who struggled to navigate round that defensive wall.
That defensive solidity was truly an asset for Wuhan, because City were a lot more composed on the ball than the home town team were, with the long bomb passes Wuhan was doing no help to its forwards, who were proving to be dangerous if fed properly.
Just as the doubt was starting to creep in about whether the game would be decided within regular time, Melbourne City finally found the breakthrough with about 15 minutes to go, when McMahon headed home a perfectly placed Leticia McKenna free kick.
The goal in a way emboldened Wuhan though, who began to commit more numbers forward in their attacking plays, which they had plenty of.
However the extra numbers did not help improve Wuhan’s shot accuracy, with the home town side not looking any more likely to score than they had before the goal.
City had seemed to have put the icing on the cake in stoppage time through a well placed Bryleeh Henry shot, but VAR disallowed the goal after it picked up a foul Henry had committed earlier in the attacking play.
The chaos was dialled up moments later when Wuhan earned themselves a penalty after Mariana Speckmaier handballed the ball, and Wang perfectly nailed the subsequent penalty kick.
There were some nervy moments for City in the first half of extra time, but ultimately some resolute defending from City kept the score at one all heading into half time of extra time.
The deadlock still was not able to be broken in the second half of extra time, so off to penalties the sides went.
It was impossible to split the sides in the early stages of the penalty shoot out, with both sides converting their first three penalties.
However, Mires saved Wuhan’s fourth penalty, and all Rebekah Stott had to do was convert her shot and the title was City’s, but the City captain could not get the job done and the shoot out continued. Wuhan then converted their sixth penalty, and the pressure was on Bryleeh Henry to score and keep the shoot out going. However, her shot did not trouble Chen and the title went to Wuhan.
Teams: MELBOURNE CITY (4-4-2): Mieres, Roestbakken, Stott, Otto, Apostolakis, McKenna, Davidson, McMahon, Henry, McNamara, Bosch. Substitutes: Varley, Harvey, Pollicina, Murray, Hughes, Meyers, Speckmaier, Karic, Accardo, Barbieri, Vlajnic, Rossi.
Regular Time Scorer: McMahon 76’
WUHAN JIANGDA (4-4-2): Ding, Ma, Y.Zhao, H.Wu, Kim, F.Song, S.Wang, C.Jiang, C.Dai, Engesha, Traore. Substitutes: T.Xie, L.Tingting, Y.Wei, T.Han, Q.Xu, C.Chen, M.Deng, Q.Wang, J.Zhao, Duan, B.Huang, D.Jianqun.
Regular Time Scorer: Wang 90+8’ [PEN]
Referee: Asaka Koizumi (JPN)
Attendance: 18,000
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