Melbourne City’s fire warning shot ahead of grand final with huge win over Newcastle Jets
Early missed opportunities hurt the Newcastle Jets as Melbourne City booked their spot in the A-Leagues grand final with a comprehensive victory, setting up a huge clash with Sydney FC on Saturday.
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Melbourne City have fired a warning shot at Sydney FC ahead of next week’s grand final with another clinical 3-0 win over Newcastle Jets.
City went into the second leg of their semi-final against Jets with a 3-0 lead.
Jets, well aware of the monumental effort needed to fight their way back into the tie, came out firing at AAMI Park.
But it wasn’t enough to keep the premiers from scoring another three unanswered goals.
Jets fired off 10 shots - with several golden chances off Sarina Bolden’s boot going to waste, before City even looked like scoring.
City were happy to play the patient game - and when their first opportunity arose, off the back of a great counter-attack and pass from Daniela Galic- Pollicina made sure to bury it.
The midfielder has had a standout season scoring seven goals and registering three assists.
Credit to the Jets they didn’t lift their foot off the accelerator for the remainder of the first half.
City coach Dario Vidosic was forced to swap out goalkeeper Barbara - who had impressed in goal in the first half - for former Matildas keeper Melissa Barbieri - as she was suffering from an illness. Barbara was later spotted on the bench wearing a medical face mask.
Jets started the second half similar to how they had played the first - desperate to register at least one goal.
But Newcastle lacked composure and struggled to hold onto the ball, they had a passing accuracy below 50 per cent.
Newcastle started to run out of fuel and City took it as a chance to accelerate and string together some dominant passages of play.
City’s Emina Ekic and Galic were formidable down the wings - both had chances to add to the scoreboard in the second half.
It was an unselfish pass from Ekic that set up Hannah Wilkinson for City’s second goal of the match - putting them 5-0 up on aggregate.
Just minutes later Leticia McKenna slipped another one past Izzy Nino - putting City 6-0 on aggregate with 20 minutes left on the clock.
While the past two games haven’t gone the Jets way it has been a good season for them. They won their first A-Leagues finals game - beating Western United 4-2 in their elimination final, and had huge crowd numbers at their home games.
On top of that their coach Gary van Egmond left midway through the season after getting an opportunity in China.
The players face a nervous wait this offseason - with the future of the club in limbo with a buyer yet to be found.
Melbourne City haven’t played in a grand final since 2020 - where they beat Sydney FC 1-0, in extra time, to lift the trophy.
In fact City have played four grand finals - three of them against Sydney and each a victory.
The grand final will be played at AAMI Park on Saturday at 4.15pm
Sydney FC end Mariners’ fairytale to book grand final berth
It was strange to see Sydney FC celebrate so much after a draw – but it was all they needed to book their spot in another A-Leagues grand final.
It was a scrappy game, particularly the first half with both Sydney and Central Coast Mariners struggling to keep possession of the ball or do the simple things right.
Sydney ran onto Leichhardt Oval, in front of 7063 fans, with a 1-0 lead, after winning the first-leg at Gosford last weekend.
It took them 30 minutes to get on the board on Saturday afternoon - putting them 2-0 up on the aggregate score.
Sydney’s Mackenzie Hawkesby, who also scored the winner in the first leg, scored the Sky Blue’s goal.
While Hawkesby might have had the final say in the first goal credit needs to go to Princess Ibini-Isei’s effort to keep the ball in play, coupled with a great cross from Indiana dos Santos and deft touch from Cortnee Vine.
They will be sweating on Hawkesby’s fitness after she limped off the field with just minutes left on the clock.
Sydney FC were brought back to the ground rather quickly with Mariners’ Rola Badawiya getting herself in the perfect position to level the scores just 13 minutes later.
Central Coast’s desperation to score again and level the aggregate score was evident with the way they played out the final minutes of the first half.
Faye Bryson almost gave herself a serious knee injury with a poorly timed tackle against Ibini-Isei.
Mariners had all the momentum going into the break and it continued through to the second half.
Captain Kyah Simon had two early chances but wasn’t able to convert them into points.
Sky Blues increased their guard around Simon – making it difficult for her to keep involved in the game.
Another chance went begging when Paige Hayward sent the ball soaring over the crossbar.
Neither team was clinical – a high turnover rate in the midfield and poor passing meant both sides had to work hard to create viable chances.
A darting run from Vine had Sydney FC in front of goal – her perfectly placed cross found Hawkesby running in at top speed – who just wasn’t able to get control of the ball – sending it wide of the net.
Credit to Mariners who gave it everything they had – putting Sydney under some serious pressure in the final minutes of the match. But they just weren’t able to find a way through.
They had a late chance off a header but Sydney FC’s Jada Whyman put on an acrobatic show to save the ball centimetres from the goal line – saving the Sky Blues from an extra time battle.
While it is the Mariners’ last game of the season it is important to note how impressive it was that they even made the semi-finals, given it is their first in the league after a 15-year hiatus.
Sydney FC will play the winner of the Melbourne City and Newcastle Jets semi-final in the grand final on May 4.
Melbourne City go into their second leg with Newcastle Jets, to be played at 1pm on Sunday, with a 3-0 lead.
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