Victory Finish Second

Melbourne Victory have restored some pride from its disappointing Asian Champions League campaign with a 3-1 win over Chonburi tonight taking them to second in Group G.

The Victory finish second in the group on seven points one point ahead of Chunnam Dragons, who drew with Gamba Osaka 1-1 this evening. Gamba finished on 14 points and go through comfortably as the group’s best team.

Melbourne though had their work cut out for them at Telstra Dome tonight against a Chonburi side who took the lead early in the second-half.

Before that, Melbourne had dominated the first-half but wasted several opportunities to open the scoring in a match which lacked intensity.

Rodrigo Vargas and Nick Ward both had chances to score inside the first fifteen minutes of the match but couldn’t convert.

In the 17th minute, Danny Allsopp whipped in an innocuous low cross which was almost deflected into goal by Chonburi defender Nattapong Samana only for goalkeeper Kosin Hathairattanakool to pull off a relieving save.

Chonburi’s best chance of the first half came from a dead-ball situation. Arthit Sunthornpit fired in an inswinging shot towards Melbourne keeper Mitch Langerak’s top corner but the youngster was ready for the danger and pushed the ball away for a corner.

After that Carlos Hernandez saw a free-kick go wide, Allsopp had a stinging shot palmed away by Hathairattanakool and Tom Pondeljak had an opportunistic flick saved again by the goalkeeper before the break.

When the second-half began the intensity didn’t come with it. That came just before the hour mark, after an awful mix-up in Melbourne’s defence. Steven Pace played a ball which put Kevin Muscat under pressure in his own box and Ney Fabiano pounced before he lashed a thunderbolt past Langerak to give the visitors an unlikely lead.

Melbourne responded immediately when Carlos Hernandez whipped in a corner which caused trouble at the near post as Samana blocked the ball on the line only for his clearance to go straight into the goalfront and the path of Muscat who easily slotted the goal to make up for his defensive blunder earlier.

The small crowd of about 10,000 fans began to get excited when Melbourne coach Ernie Merrick brought on Socceroo Archie Thompson after eight weeks out with a knee injury.

Much to the crowd’s delight, Thompson had an immediate impact. Allsopp played a lovely square through-ball past the Chonburi defence as Thompson ran onto it and rounded the goalkeeper before slotting it into the back of the net. In a matter of minutes, the Victory had overcome a one-goal deficit to be in front.

Chonburi responded by bringing on Cameroonian forward Stephane Baga, who memorably scored a cracking goal against Melbourne earlier in the competition, and again caused the Victory’s uncertain defence problems.

Finally though, Melbourne sealed the win when a fast break created a three-on-three situation. Hernandez played Thompson into space on the left side of the box, as Allsopp attracted the attention of two defenders on the right, before Thompson cut the ball back for Hernandez who placed the ball emphatically into the top corner.

There were opportunities for both Baga and Thompson late in the game but neither could take them. Nonetheless, the lively substitutes had given the game something it badly needed.

In the end, despite the match being a dead rubber, Merrick got what he wanted as his side finished second in the group and the fans went home happy on a cold night in Melbourne.

Melbourne Victory 3 (Muscat 56, Thompson 66, Hernandez 76)
Chonburi FC 1 (Ney Fabiano 54)
Crowd: 9958 at Telstra Dome