The Sky Blues have fallen a point short of Isuzu UTE A-League Finals football, losing away at AAMI Park against Melbourne City.
Patryk Klimala found the net in the second half but it didn’t prove enough to edge their way back into the contest and they fell short in the end.
Sydney FC 1 (Klimala 66’) def. by Melbourne City FC 5 (Behich 5’, Caputo 26’, Tilio 35’, Kuen 58’, Memeti 90+5’)
Moments That Mattered:
5’ | BEHICH GOAL – A corner into the box is punched to Aziz Behich who rockets a half volley attempt beyond the hands of Devenish-Meares.
16’ | LOLLEY STRIKE – Lolley receives the ball on the left-hand side of the 18-yard box, leathering a strike of venom towards the bottom left-hand corner and Beach at full stretch tips it away off the up-right..
26’ | CAPUTO GOAL – Tilio finds Caputo who takes on Popovic, cutting inside and he nestles a near post-strike in the net
32’ | OUAHIM CHANCE – Ouahim dances through traffic and gets a shot away which hits the post.
35’ | TILIO GOAL – Atkinson whips a ball behind the Sydney FC defence and Tilio takes a positive touch forward and pokes it beyond Devenish-Meares.
58’ | KUEN GOAL – Kuen wins the ball, drives into the box and sees his pass deflect back into his path where he rifles a shot past Redmayne.
66’ | KILMALA GOAL – Costa drops the shoulder on Kuen at the edge of the penalty area, measuring a tantalising pass to Klimala, who gets his head to it for an intuitive finish up and above Beach.
90+5 | MEMETI GOAL – A pass from Lopane to the right-hand side of the penalty area finds Memeti who cuts onto his left and inside the box to slam a shot in the back of the net.
Match Report: Sydney FC have fallen short of Isuzu UTE A-League Finals football, losing 5-1 away at AAMI Park against Melbourne City.
Melbourne City started strong and the Sky Blues found themselves behind early on through Aziz Behich.
The visitors attempted to return serve as Joe Lolley hit the post following a shot from range however City would respond with a second.
Soon Tilio extended their advantage to three after Ouahim hit the post at the other end and the Sky Blues had plenty to do in the second 45.
Patryk Klimala came on at the interval to spark some life into Ufuk Talay’s team and they did create a few half chances however the ball would fall kindly to Melbourne City and they would find a fourth.
Substitute Klimala would find the net when he looped a header over Pat Beach in the City goal however that wasn’t the end of the scoring as City scored a fifth in stoppage time.
In the second half, Harrison Devenish-Meares went down injured with his groin and Andrew Redmayne would enter the pitch for his final Sydney FC appearance.
What They Said – Ufuk Talay
“We were very poor this evening. We had a few moments but I don’t think we were good enough regardless.
“We needed one point from our last two games and unfortunately we didn’t do it and if you look at the performance tonight I don’t think it was good enough to play finals football.
“We will look at this and review the season and the ACL games too and make decisions accordingly for the season after.
Sydney FC (Away) | Formation: 5-4-1: 12. Harrison DEVENISH-MEARES (GK) (1. Andrew REDMAYNE (GK) 52’, 41. Alexander POPOVIC, 4. Jordan COURTNEY-PERKINS (37. Will KENNEDY 72’), 16. Joel KING, 23. Rhyan GRANT (C), 17. Anthony CACERES, 11. Douglas COSTA, 8. Anas OUAHIM (20. Tiago QUINTAL 85’), 24. Wataru KAMIJO (9. Patryk KLIMALA 46’), 7. Adrian SEGECIC (25. Jaiden KUCHARSKI 85’), 10. Joesph LOLLEY
Head Coach: Ufuk TALAY
Unused Substitutions: 42. Kyle Reilly SHAW, 6. Corey HOLLMAN
Yellow Cards: Popovic 36’, Ouahim 54’, Klimala 55’, Grant 70’
Red Cards: None
Melbourne City FC (Home) | Formation: 4-2-3-1: 33. Patrick BEACH (GK), 27. Kai TREWIN, 22. German FERREYRA, 30. Andreas KUEN (39. Emin DURAKOVIC 87’, 16. Aziz BEHICH (C), 13. Nathaniel ATKINSON (2. Callum TALBOT 76’), 21. Alessandro LOPANE, 19. Zane SCHREIBER (7. Mathew LECKIE 68’), 10. Yonatan COHEN (35. Medin MEMETI 68’), 23. Marco TILIO (47. Kavian RAHMANI 68’), 17. Max CAPUTO
Head Coach: Aurelio VIDMAR
Unused Substitutions: 18. Dakota OCHSENHAM (GK), 41. Lawerence WONG,
Yellow Cards: None
Red Cards: None
Venue: AAMI Park, Melbourne, Victoria
Referee: Adam KERSEY
