A late header from Lisa De Vanna secured a hard earned 1-0 win for Melbourne Victory over a stubborn Adelaide United and kept Victory at the top of the table.
Victory spent much of the game trying to break down Adelaide’s packed defence, but it wasn’t till Gulcan Koca’s wonderful cross on 82nd minute for De Vanna did their brave resistance finally give way.
The result was just rewards for Victory, who had dominated the entire contest.
For all the home side’s possession, it took them ten minutes before they had their first effort at goal, coming through a skied Caitlin Friend shot.
Adelaide had put numbers behind the ball in order to try and stifle Victory’s potent attack and the two centre backs in Alexandra Gummer and Jemma McCormick were repelling everything that was coming their way.
In order to overload the Lady Reds defence, Jessica Samuelsson and Steph Catley were pushing forward on every opportunity to try and create an opening.
The Swedish fullback was proving instrumental in many of Victory’s attacking forays down the right flank and should have done better with an attempt in the 26th minute.
Having played a short corner she played a one two and fired in a shot that went straight at Melissa Barbieri.
Catley was complementing Samuelsson efforts on the left, and forced Barbieri into a save with a fierce shot which the keeper failed to hold onto.
Having absorbed plenty of pressure from Victory, Adelaide were counter attacking at selective times, and when they did they looked like causing one or two problems for Victory’s defence.
Their best chance of the match fell to Kristy Moore, who latched onto a long pass and was clean through against Brianna Davey.
Fortunately for the Victory keeper, her finish was poor and the ball went straight into Davey’s gloves.
The Lady Reds would have been ruing that chance at half time, but they would probably also have been happy to have kept Victory scoreless and frustrated.
The home side then fired in a series of shots after the break, with Samuelsson having the best scoring chance of the lot.
Lisa De Vanna had rolled in a cross from the left flank and after a couple of dummies by Fishlock and Koca, the ball fell to the Swede who couldn’t hit the target.
Samuelsson was continually the best attacking outlet for Victory, and in the 57th minute she burst into the box, beating a couple of defenders before somehow firing a shot wide.
She was in the thick of the action again in the 74th minute, when she timed her run well to be played in by Friend and was clean through one on one against Barbieri.
However, Samuelsson was only able to strike the upright as she tried to squeeze the ball between Barbieri and her near post.
Victory didn’t have to wait too much longer to finally make the breakthrough however, as they pieced together their best attack in the match.
Jess Fishlock found Koca who had drifted wide on the right flank, and played a deep ball towards the byline.
Koca then wrapped her foot around the ball to deliver a sumptuous cross which De Vanna gladly headed towards the far post.
It left Barbieri stranded, and she could only stand and watch the ball loop over her head and into the back of the net.
The goal was De Vanna’s first for Melbourne Victory, and the forward will be delighted to have gotten off the mark for her new club.
Team Lineups:
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Substitutes:
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Substitutions:
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Scorer:
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