Melbourne City 1-0 Melbourne Victory [2-0 on aggregate]
by Alyce Collett (9/5/26)
Above: Bryleeh Henry (left) fights hard with Alana Jancevski (right) during this afternoon’s second leg of the Melbourne Derby semi final. Photo: Tilly McDonald for Impetus.
Melbourne City have avenged the demons of last year’s finals series and are through to another A-League Women’s Grand Final after another 1-0 win over Melbourne Victory in the second leg of their semi final.
It another pretty even 90 minutes of action between the fierce rivals, but a well struck first half goal from Shelby McMahon was enough to make the comeback challenge too hard for Victory.
It was Victory who got the first meaningful shot on goal of the match through Kennedy White, but the striker could not get enough power on her shot to make much of an impact.
City also had a few chances in front of goal in the first 20 or so minutes, with Aideen Keane among the ones to go close but not quite convert.
Both sides had plenty of time in front of goal in the opening half of the first half, but just could not find their forwards in enough space for them to shoot properly.
There was a lot of back and forth play up and down the pitch between the two sides, but the question remained of if and/or when the first goal of the afternoon was going to come.
Eventually that opening goal came off the boot of McMahon just over the half hour mark when the young star collected a bobbling ball and struck the ball into the back of the net with some pace. The shot also came from just outside the top of the 18 yard box, adding to the impressiveness of the goal.
Despite their challenge doubling in difficulty, Victory kept fighting hard to get back in the tie, with Holly Furphy livening up in the later stages of the first half.
Although they were the chasers, Victory started on the front foot in the second half, racking up the attempts on goal. However, as hard as they tried, they just could not get the ball into the back of the net.
Victory still held the majority of possession, so needed to change something up if they wanted to have any hope of getting back into the tie.
City were not without chances of their own to extend their lead, but as the half progressed and Victory’s time to get back into the match continued to drop, pressure eased on City and the fact they could not extend their lead was no longer City’s biggest priority.
The visitors continued to push hard into the final minutes of regulation time and into stoppage time, but just could not manufacture enough dangerous chances or convert any of the half chances, ultimately ending their season one match earlier than last season’s campaign.
Teams: MELBOURNE CITY (4-4-2): Mieres, Otto, Stott, Turner, Davidson, Mckenna, Henry, Roestbakken, Keane, McMahon, McNamara. Substitutes: Aoyagi, Apostolakis, Barbieri, Hughes, Jackson, Karic, Wilson.
Scorers: McMahon 34’
MELBOURNE VICTORY (4-3-1-2): Newbon, Morrison, Bunge, Pickett, O’Grady, Ray, Maher, Furphy, Lowe, Jancevski, White, Pollicina. Substitutes: Blissett, Techera, Curtis, Woodward, Sakalis, Saveska, Flannery.
Referee: Mikayla Ryan.
Attendance: TBC.
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