Melbourne Victory 1 – 0 Adelaide United
By Alyce Collett 13/12/25
Above: Melbourne Victory (blue uniform) celebrates with Rachel Lowe (centre) after she scored against Adelaide United. Photo: via A-Leagues
The Melbourne Victory have returned to the winners list in the A-League Women’s, downing Adelaide United 1-0 thanks to a second half goal from Rachel Lowe. Although the match at times was relatively even between the sides, Victory capitalised at key moments and Adelaide come away from this match with plenty to think about if it wants to resurrect its season.
The Victory were on the front foot early, not wasting much time before beginning to test the Adelaide defence, with the likes of Holly Furphy and Rhianna Pollicina asking some serious questions of the defence of the visitors.
The Reds responded pretty quickly with some dangerous attacking play of their own, with Emily Hodgson in particular giving the Victory defence plenty to think about out on the wing.
As the half progressed though, things became very free flowing and very even, with the ball moving from end to end with relative ease and both sides getting their fair share of attacking final third time.
Kennedy White and Erin Healy both had promising shots on goal, but just could not quite get their shots exactly where they wanted them to get them in the back of the net.
The problem Victory were facing was that their final passes into the box just were not working, so as good as the home side’s build up play was, it ultimately meant nothing as the final passes were not reaching their target.
Meanwhile for Adelaide, the issue for the Reds was that they were unable to get close enough to goal to really put up any overtly dangerous shots, preferring to shoot regularly from even outside the 18 yard box.
In the end neither side were able to find the back of the net in the first half and both sides went into the half time break with plenty to think about.
The first half stats were as even as the on field play would have suggested.
Melbourne Victory had only two percent more of possession and only one more shot than their visitors did, but both sides had the exact same number of shots on target.
Although both sides had chances on goal in the early minutes of the second half, but it was the Victory who were ultimately able to make the most of one of those chances, as Lowe – who had been a little bit on the quiet side up to this point – found herself the recipient of a cross from Furphy to the top of the box, and all Lowe needed was one touch to strike perfectly and catch the Adelaide defenders napping.
Although Lowe’s goal proved to be ultimately the only one of the match, the Victory continued to pile on the shots in the second half (eight shots to Adelaide’s four) and they had the only two shots on target for the second half.
It was the little things that ultimately cost Adelaide in the end. These included things like lapses of concentration in defence and the inability to break through the centre of Victory’s defence to really challenge the Victory goal on a consistent basis.
Teams: MELBOURNE VICTORY (3-4-3): Newbon, Jančevski, Morrison, Bunge, Pickett, Ray, Pollicina, Lowe, Sakalis, White, Furphy. Substitutes: O’Grady, Flannery, Curtis, Techera, Young, Woodward.
Scorers: Lowe 50’
Adelaide United (4-2-3-1): Jenkins, E Hodgson, Murray, Tonkin, Tolland, Zois, M Taranto, Healy, I Hodgson, A Taranto, Dawber. Substitutes: Makris,Condon, Rossi, Gooch, Dewey, Melegh.
Referee: Isabella Mossin
Attendance: 2,004
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