Melbourne’s Connor Pain tries to wrest the ball from Sydney’s Rhyan Grant
Sydney FC earned a valuable point on Saturday night against Melbourne Victory in Sydney. In one of the best games of the season, the fixture that has been dubbed “The Big Blue” was as entertaining as a match can get.
The play was open and attacking from the start. Within three minutes Melbourne caught out the Sydney defence with a cross from the left being met by Mark Milligan at the far post. His tap in under keeper Ivan Necevski made it 1-0 to Melbourne Victory.
Melbourne displayed a short and sharp passing game that was mesmerising for both Sydney’s defence and fans. However, Sydney’s endeavour was positive and purposeful with Alessandro Del Piero as the anchor in attack.
The second half saw Sydney dictating possession and putting Melbourne under pressure. Melbourne’s only option was to counter attack when they had the ball, mostly through their talismanic striker Archie Thompson.
Sydney was awarded a fortunate penalty after a clearance struck the hand of Dylan Murlane. Del Piero stepped up to take the spot kick but it was saved by keeper Nathan Coe.
It was end-to-end play that could have seen plenty of goals had it not been for the inspired goal keepers at both ends. Sydney persisted and was rewarded in the 85th minute. A flicked on corner was met by an unmarked Yairo Yau to equalise for the Sky Blues, sending the Sydney fans into raptures.
The scoring ended there but the game will be remembered for its enterprising play that saw a glut of chances saved by fantastic goal keeping.
Sydney FC 1 (Yairo Yau 85′)
Melbourne Victory 1 (Mark Milligan 3′)
Man of the match: Nathan Coe
Crowd: 22,223
