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35 mins: Victory are applying plenty of pressure, but a needless foul from Arzani shortly after he threw himself to the ground in possession allows City to slow the tempo.
33 mins: Adam Kersey can no longer resist the urge to book someone. Cohen is the first man to see yellow for a foul on Arzani, but the caution was likely more for repeat infringements than one single indiscretion.
32 mins: Miranda with another majestic long pass, this time to Bos, and now he’s brought down by Cohen. Arzani’s free-kick into the box is flicked on and should be Beach’s to claim but Atkinson heads away instead – only as far as the trigger happy Machach, who larrups another effort straight at a City defender. There are wildly optimistic cries for a handball penalty. Nothing doing.
30 mins: Now it’s City’s turn to plead innocence as Atkinson brings Santos down on the left wing. It was poor control from the Victory man after a superb crossfield diagonal from Miranda. The free-kick is delivered dangerously, Miranda wins it in the air, but it dribbles unthreateningly wide.
28 mins: Victory fans are furious that Arzani is adjudged to have fouled Tilio on the touchline just in front of the dugout. Victory, led by Arzani, are doing their utmost to keep the tempo high and make the game a transitional one. City are trying to slow things down and keep everything methodical.
27 mins: Now Arzani lets fly from range but Trewin is down to block.
26 mins: Another Machach effort, this time wildly optimistic and blocked on the edge of the box with teammates in better positions.
25 mins: Now it’s Beach’s turn to make a crucial save! Arzani is the driving force for Victory again, running the ball at City’s defence before Machach has the latest in a series of snapshots, this time beating the initial block and forcing the keeper into a save diving low to his right.
24 mins: Tilio’s delivery is straight at Duncan, who punches clear, but the second ball is much better and is met by a firm Mat Leckie header, low to Duncan’s left from six yards out, but the Victory keeper gets down low to paw the ball off the line! That was very close to a second.
23 mins: A rare move down City’s right sees Jackson forced into conceding a corner.
22 mins: City build beautifully from the back, playing through the lines with confidence. Practically every player in sky blue touches the ball as it’s recycled from right to left to right to left until Kuen is in acres of space and able to dink a throughball to Tilio, but Miranda does enough to snuff out the danger.
20 mins: A reminder that Melbourne City have the best defensive record in the A-League this season. And they haven’t lost when taking the lead.
18 mins: Fornaroli does Fornaroli things, standing under a high ball with no intention of playing for it, waiting for the defender to engage then hitting the deck theatrically. It leads to a free-kick in a dangerous position that is fed through to Santos who gets around Behich to the byline. He pulls back to Machach but his snapshot is deflected behind off Leckie. The resulting corner is headed clear.
17 mins: Victory are furious with a Ugarkovic challenge in midfield. He wins the ball, but with his studs up sliding into Bos, who takes a whack for his troubles. The referee calms things down and keeps his cards in his pocket. He gets a spray from Arzani soon afterwards when he’s pinged for a clear foul on Leckie.
16 mins: In transition City get the ball in that same left channel again and Behich scoots over a tempting cross but there’s nobody steaming onto it in the box and Duncan gathers.
14 mins: Ugarkovic has settled City in the middle of the park but a promising move down the right ends when Arzani tracks back to rob Atkinson, then threaten to break inside the City fullback before he’s brought down. The Socceroo winger has been very bright.
12 mins: Miranda goes down “professionally” after Kuen trod on the defender’s foot late. Chance for Victory to regroup after that early setback.
GOAL! Melbourne City 1-0 Melbourne Victory (Cohen, 10)
It’s been all Victory early on but it’s City who strike first! A dink from Trewin into the left channel finds the onrushing Behich. He finds Kuen, who pulls the ball back for Caputo to stab against the bar, but the ball rebounds kindly for Cohen to hammer home.
9 mins: City are not yet at the races. Another spell of passing across the back four ends with Trewin spraying a long diagonal straight out of play.
7 mins: City are starting to get on the ball in defence, but Tilio is robbed on halfway and Victory counter with purpose. Tilio caught Santos in his bid to regain possession and the Victory star returns to his feet a little gingerly.
5 mins: The camera cuts to a pensive Aurelio Vidmar, who is rocking late career Rafael Nadal levels of hairline chutzpah. His City side have settled, but Victory remain on the front foot. Arzani is very busy, popping up on the right touchline now only to turn away from his marker and into touch.
3 mins: The corner is good and a snapshot is blocked. Arzani then has another dribble, this time to the byline, but his cutback is cleared. Machach then has a dart towards goal. Victory have started very brightly.
Behind play Ferreyra is a tad groggy after wearing that previous Machach effort on his scone.
2 mins: 30 seconds of 50:50s in the middle of the park indicate the nerves on display, but Arzani quickly shows his class, playing the ball to the left then following up for the return pass, skinning Atkinson on the touchline and driving towards the box. Nothing comes of it, but Victory have a corner soon afterwards when Beach horribly miscontrols and lets the ball run under his foot. Yikes!
Kick-off!
The 2025 A-League Men grand final is under way…
The match ball is delivered onto the field by a diddy remote controlled ISUZU Ute. Early player of the match contender.
There’s a hum around AAMI Park, the kind that you only hear on major sporting occasions. Tens of thousands of people unable to contain their nervous energy. The background noise is welcome as a beautiful a cappella rendition of the national anthem is distorted somewhat by an effects mic too close to one of the players, who is singing heroically flat and without any hint of gusto.
Here come the two sides along the AAMI Park race. Victory all in navy blue, City in sky blue shirts and white shorts. The past ten minutes or so have contained an elaborate son et lumière, culminating in club legends Leigh Broxham and Jamie Maclaren placing the A-League championship toilet seat onto a plinth.
Tonight’s team of officials is led by A-League referee of the year Adam Kersey. George Lakrindis and Emma Kockek will run the lines, Shaun Evans will bear the brunt of both coaches’ anger as the fourth official, with Lara Lee operating VAR.
Conditions are perfect in Melbourne. It’s been dry and still all day, and despite the temperature dropping into single figures, the full house under lights at AAMI Park will make for a fiery atmosphere.
For City, Mat Leckie is fit to start so Ale Lopane moves to the bench. Lawrence Wong is among the subs after missing last week with a wrist injury.
For Victory, Nishan Velupillay has not proven his fitness, but Kasey Bos does make the starting XI. Mitch Langerak is on the bench and a potential matchwinner if the game goes to penalties.
City (4-1-3-2)
33 Beach
13 Atkinson, 22 Ferreyra, 27 Trewin, 16 Behich (c)
6 Ugarkovic
7 Leckie, 30 Kuen, 23 Tilio
17 Caputo, 10 Cohen
Victory (4-2-3-1)
25 Duncan
28 Bos, 4 Jackson, 21 Miranda (c), 22 Rawlins
6 Teague, 14 Valadon
11 Santos, 8 Machach, 7 Arzani
10 Fornaroli
Melbourne Victory XI
Melbourne City XI
Martin Pegan sets the scene:
Australian football has been here many times before, with visions of a grand spectacle that might reignite the passion of casual observers. The Mariners’ back-to-back championship triumphs will live long in the memory but so too does the last time Victory and City met under the glare of the spotlight in the wake of the Socceroos’ stirring 2022 World Cup campaign. With fans railing against the APL’s decision to break with tradition and hold three grand finals in Sydney – a deal that would have concluded with this year’s decider – the Melbourne derby descended into humiliating chaos when spectators invaded the pitch and forced the match to be abandoned for player safety reasons.
This time, with no new clouds hanging over the competition and the grand final being given clear air in Melbourne, the focus can turn to matters on the pitch and a tussle between two evenly matched teams playing for more than just championship glory.
Plenty of pyro and police on the streets of Melbourne this evening.
Preamble
Jonathan Howcroft
Hello everybody and welcome to live coverage of the A-League Men grand final between Melbourne City and Melbourne Victory. Kick-off at AAMI Park is 7.40pm.
It’s the biggest night on the domestic football calendar and the biggest night for club football in Melbourne in the A-League era. There’s still an awful lot wrong with the game in Australia and the cut-through of the local competition but it’s events like this that have the potential to show how the A-League can thrive.
City have been building for this moment all season. A fifth grand final in six years comes as no surprise to a squad that has only spent one week outside the top six on the ladder, and finished their premiership campaign with seven wins from 11 matches. Their semi-final was a two-legged affair, but was over after one when they put three unanswered goals past Western United.
Victory, by contrast, have come from the clouds to make it this far. They didn’t win a match between rounds eight and 15 as they came to terms with the departure of manager Patrick Kisnorbo, but his former assistant Arthur Diles picked up the baton and turned Victory into one of the form teams of the second half of the season. Even so, they still had to win away at the higher ranked Western Sydney Wanderers in the first week of the finals, and then overturn a 1-0 first-leg deficit in their semi-final away at premiership winners Auckland FC.
Victory will fancy their chances of their underdog run continuing. A nominal away fixture, they will have the majority of the crowd at the sold out AAMI Park behind them. And they have not lost any of the past eight derbies – a record stretching back to the shameful night in December 2022 when Victory fans invaded the pitch and attacked City goalkeeper Tom Glover. A-League bosses will be praying to all the Gods such scenes are not repeated tonight.
