Melbourne Victory and Wellington Phoenix have it all to play for after a cagey 0-0 draw in the first leg of their A-League Men semi-final at AAMI Park. In a clash of two styles, the Victory were allowed to control the tempo and territory for much of the contest but were unable to create enough clear-cut chances to unlock a determined Phoenix defence on Sunday.
The hosts were the more positive throughout with 20 to six attempts, and five shots on target, while the Nix were content to sit back and play on the counter without managing a single shot on goal. The Victory pushed hard in the dying stages to find a goal to take to Sky Stadium as the Phoenix all but settled for a stalemate from halfway through the second half, with the return leg to be played in New Zealand on Saturday 18 May.
While the Victory looked the more likely to score, particularly through the second half, 14 of their 20 attempts came from outside the box and the Phoenix keeper, Alex Paulsen, was never truly tested. The Nix skipper, Alex Rufer, set the tone from the midfield, helping to keep the Victory away from the more dangerous areas inside the box.
“They showed during the entire season that they’re a difficult team to beat,” said the Victory captain, Roderick Miranda. “They’re really comfortable defending deep, so we need to have a lot of patience.
“The players were a little bit anxious, it’s normal in a semi-final, the fans were pushing for us. But 0-0, everything is still open for the second leg.
“We took a lot of time to shoot, they defended with a lot of numbers at the back, they need to play a little bit further up front in the next game, so maybe we can have more chances to break them down.”
The Phoenix will carry the best home record in the league into the return leg, after 10 victories in 13 matches this season, while only losing once on home soil when stunned by Newcastle last December. The Victory can at least be buoyed by being one of only two teams to manage a draw at Sky Stadium, when Rufer converted a stoppage time penalty to snatch a point in January.
“We’ll take the draw, we’re pretty satisfied with tonight,” said Rufer, player of the match in the semi-final. “We also try to make sure that we make it difficult for the other team. I think next week we need to be a lot better with the ball, and be a lot braver.”
The Phoenix made a bright start with the best of the early chances coming from a low cross from Nicholas Pennington. Nix attackers raced into the six-yard box as the ball flew across the face of goal until the Victory defender Jason Geria was fortunate to be the one to block its path.
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The Victory gradually took command and soon looked the more threatening as Bruno Fornaroli eyed some half-chances, the first a long-range effort that Paulsen grasped with ease. Fornaroli then almost created something out of nothing when bringing down a bouncing ball in the box, somehow finding space and cutting back on to his right boot before Pennington got a foot in with a clean tackle.
The winner of the Victory-Phoenix semi-final tie will face either Central Coast or Sydney FC in the grand final on Saturday 25 May, with the Mariners leading the Sky Blues 2-1 ahead of the return leg.