Month: March 2021

The Australian A-League witnessed one of its most exciting football matches that were played between two of the League’s standout teams in Western Sydney and Wellington Phoenix. The game was a 7-goal thriller and featured a lot of exciting bits from all angles of the pitch. Although Phoenix ended up on the losing side, it may not be thought of for long given how much excitement the match produced.

The match was played at the Bankwest Stadium and ended up becoming one of the highest goalscoring games in the Australian A-League history. Cameron Devlin and Ulises Davila both scored the first two goals of the fixture in the first half to hand Wellington the lead, with Davila scoring a beautiful goal from inside the 18-yard box after being found by a through ball while Devlin converted right from the spot to double his side’s lead while Tomer Hermed scored another goal from the penalty spot in the second half to take the game almost beyond the reach of their rivals.

However, the lead was canceled after Kwame Yeboah found the back of the net in the 84th minute of the tie. Wellington Phoenix already fielded the same team that conquered Perth Glory by 3-0 in their previous league encounter, but they had to change plans and make a late change just before the match after it was confirmed that right-back Louis Fenton had kicked up a knock during his warm-up sessions.

Alex Rufer was the man chosen to replace him and he did a good job at the back for the Phoenix. Devlin then had to switch to midfield; Rufer’s original position. Most of the possession in the match was dominated by Wellington Phoenix, especially during the early minutes of the match, and it explains how they were able to get an early lead through a goal from experienced captain Ulises.

Goals
7’ Ulises DAVILA (Wellington Phoenix)
23’ Daniel WILMERING (Western Sydney Wanderers)
32’ Cameron DEVLIN (Wellington Phoenix)
52’ Jordan MUTCH (Western Sydney Wanderers)
64’ (PEN) Tomer HEMED (Wellington Phoenix)
65’ Mitchell DUKE (Western Sydney Wanderers)
84’ Kwame YEBOAH (Western Sydney Wanderers)

The two clubs who both occupy the bottom positions in the league table will go head to head as they face off in their Match week 9 clash. Phoenix who are the 11th team in the table will be traveling to Victory who are at the rock-bottom of the league table and are on a run of three games that have all ended in losses.

Wellington drew their last game after losing their two games before that one. Their draw came against Western Sydney Wanderers earlier in the match week. The team managed by Ufuk Talay needed to put in a great performance to secure the draw after they went 2-1 down despite being the first team to score in the tie. They would then go on to score an equalizer to ensure that the spoils are shared between them and their rivals.

Victory, on the other hand, suffered a 1-0 loss at home to Newcastle Jets on Saturday afternoon in their own previous fixture and played their match before Wellington played out their draw.

Grant Brebner, Victory manager said he would have to have a talk with his team and force them to put in a strong performance and grind out a better result than the last time out, insisting that they still had more work to do in some areas of the team. The manager said he hopes to be able to recall star player Marco Rojas back to action after he missed their last game due to a facial injury he suffered against the Wanders in their 7th match week tie.

Brebner is proposing to pair Rojas and Callum McManaman upfront as he looks to make the best of what he has at his disposal and produce a result worth being happy about.

Match Details
Fixture: Melbourne Victory vs Wellington Phoenix
Date: Wednesday, 24th of February, 2021.
Venue: AAMI Park
Kick-off time: 7:05pm AEDT
Broadcast Channel: Fox Sports 505