Another superb performance by Andrew Nabbout secured a comprehensive 5-2 win for Melbourne Victory over Brisbane Roar.
Brisbane took an early lead courtesy of a Dylan Murnane own goal before Nabbout blew the visitors away with his hat trick by scoring Victory’s first two and last goal of the day.
Anthony Proia and Francesco Stella scored Victory’s other goals, with Brisbane getting a fortunate consolation through Samed Altundag.
While the match ended rather one sided, the first half started in Brisbane’s favour as they stormed out of the blocks with a long range effort from Devante Clut, forcing Lawrence Thomas into a good save.
Brisbane continued pressuring Melbourne deep into their half, and Thomas was called into action once again from a Mitchell Hore shot.
Victory then began to work themselves into the game and almost went ahead when Francesco Stella pounced on a poor Brisbane pass, but his effort went over the bar.
They had another chance a few minutes later through Nabbout as he volleyed just wide from a Jesse Makarounas corner.
While Victory got closer and closer to finding the opener, it was Brisbane that struck against the run of play.
Brandon Borrello swung in a low and hard cross into the centre of the area, which was diverted in by Murnane.
Not to be disheartened, Victory kept on playing their game and began to catch out Brisbane’s high line.
Finally in the 28th minute, a long pass from Rashid Mahazi split Brisbane’s defence apart and Nabbout was left with the simple task of curling the ball around Matthew Acton.
They almost repeated the dose a minute later, when Christopher Cristaldo was played in behind Brisbane’s high defence but when he was in the box he elected to set up Nabbout and the ball was cleared by a recovering defender.
Fresh from a rare appearance for the senior team, Cristaldo was lively and learnt from his mistake a few minutes later when the same opportunity presented itself.
This time he took a direct shot on goal but Acton was up to the task.
Cristaldo then put Stella through a minute later but the forward was unable to hit the target and wasted a good opportunity.
Victory had all the momentum going into the half time break and not even a change of wind direction could stop them.
As the rain began to pour down, players were finding it tough to adapt to the new conditions, with the wind playing havoc with the ball.
Eventually Victory regained their groove and took the lead through Nabbout in the 65th minute.
The move started on the left flank, with Proia played in behind the Roar defence, and he swept a low cross for Nabbout who composed himself before rifling home a shot that hit Acton on its way in.
They increased their lead a couple of minutes later when Proia tapped in a rebound after Acton saved Nabbout’s initial shot.
Brisbane were well and truly on the ropes and went further behind after more delightful football from Victory.
When Nabbout reached the byline on the right flank, he fired in a low cross which Acton was unable to get to, and Stella eventually tapped the ball in after falling on top of the ball.
It wasn’t his prettiest goal ever but it was certainly effective.
Brisbane were now reduced to sporadic counter attacks but did manage to pull a goal back thanks to a belated christmas present from Thomas.
Samed Altundag had just returned to the field to replace a cramp affected Brandon Borrello and he curled in a long range effort straight to Thomas.
The ball may have been affected by the wind but the Victory keeper should have done better as he let the ball slip straight through his hands and into the goal.
It was a small setback as Nabbout nabbed his hat trick just before the final whistle.
There was a bit of chaos in the box caused by a good ball from the right flank, and Stella’s effort was rebounded to Nabbout who had the simple task of putting the ball into the back of the net.
It was a well deserved three points for the home side, who go into the youth derby next weekend with plenty of confidence.
Lineups:
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Substitutes:
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Substitutions:
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Scorers:
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