A-League, round 28 results and news: Western United stay in the hunt for Asian Champions League
Western United’s bid to play in the Asian Champions League next season remains alive after a 1-0 victory over Sydney FC in a game which was decided in the opening minutes.
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Western United front the race for a home elimination final and remain in contention for even greater riches after making a timely return to winning ways, narrowly beating Sydney FC in a penultimate-round showdown that has significant ramifications for both sides.
Smarting from back-to-back away defeats at Western Sydney Wanderers and Brisbane Roar, the hosts raced out of the traps and scored the game’s only goal after four minutes through Matthew Grimaldi.
This was enough to secure a three-point return, which climbs them up to third place - incidentally, the position from which they won the Championship in 2022 - and a single point behind Melbourne City, who currently occupy the lucrative AFC Champions League Elite qualification spot.
Worth $1.27m in 2024-25, City could have made this their own with victory over Adelaide United on Saturday night, but a goalless draw means Western lead a hunting pack of themselves, Western Sydney Wanderers and Melbourne Victory waiting to pounce on another setback.
The defeated Sydney, meanwhile, remain outside of the top six by a single point from Adelaide, although only need a draw on the final weekend thanks to a combination of their superior goal difference and the Reds having completed their fixture list. They will, however, have to secure this on the road to a Melbourne City outfit needing a result for their own reasons.
OPENER SURVIVES VAR CHECK
Sydney FC were desperate for some forgiving officiating to save them from committing one of football’s cardinal sins - conceding from your own corner.
But Michael Ruhs’ industrial challenge on Joel King - which left the defender floored and out of position as he attempted to clear Angus Thurgate’s forward ball from deep - went unpunished both in real-time and on review, allowing Riku Danzaki to exploit the vacant space out left and deliver an eye of the needle cross that Grimaldi slammed home at the far post for his fifth of the campaign.
Then, with the restart delayed by more VAR intervention, not even a pair of adjacent lines could provide an offside verdict to redeem the visiting players, who would have been a more appropriate recipient of Ufuk Talay’s verbal volley than the under-fire fourth official.
SOME FINE WOODWORK
The single-goal scoreline is not reflective of a game where both teams regularly bypassed midfield traffic to lay siege on the goalkeepers. But the deciding moment aside, on the occasions that either netminder was bettered, the goalframe intervened.
Ruhs hit the foot of the post from a tight angle when a slip from Sydney’s Harrison Devenish-Meares presented an unguarded net before Adrian Segecic latched onto Douglas Costa’s perfectly weighted pass and left the upright shaking from a venomous hit, being inches away from going ahead in the golden boot race.
HOME COMFORTS COULD BE TAKEN AWAY
A third home win on the spin, with Premiers Auckland FC visiting on the final weekend, puts Western on track for an advantageous home elimination tie. But should this be against one of their Melbourne neighbours, City or Victory, Victoria Police will likely insist the game is played at AAMI Park.
Olimpico goal caps off Auckland’s crowning moment
Auckland FC has celebrated its crowning moment in style with a goal, players and teammates won’t forget anytime soon.
Marlee Francois scored his first A-League goal with an Olimpico, scoring directly from a corner, in the 62nd minute to lift the premiers to a 1-0 win over Perth Glory.
As Auckland players crammed into the six-yard area, Francois whipped in an inswinging cross which sailed high and long above the pack, eventually going in off the back post.
THE PREMIERS FIND THE BREAKTHROUGH ðŸ†ðŸ”¥
— Isuzu UTE A-League (@aleaguemen) April 27, 2025
Marlee Francois scores his first A-Leagues goal DIRECT FROM A CORNER.
And the celebrations are about to go to another level for @fc_auckland at Go Media Stadium!
Watch #AKLvPER live now on Paramount+ (AU) / Sky Sport (NZ) pic.twitter.com/ZJb931Yrv6
The home side were left frustrated to have even been level to that stage of the game after dominating the opening stages of the contest.
At halftime, they had 15 shots to none with an expected goals tally of 2.06 and 72 per cent possession.
Glory goalkeeper Oli Sail played a big role in keeping the game level with a brilliant save in the first half.
City stalemate creates A-League men’s history
— Ronny Lerner
Auckland FC have been crowned A-League Men’s premiers in their debut season after Melbourne City were held to a 0-0 draw by Adelaide United at AAMI Park on Saturday night.
Second-placed Melbourne had to beat the Reds to keep the battle for the premiers’ plate alive, but the Black Knights are now in celebration mode with two games still left in their season as the first New Zealand team to win the Australian league in 48 seasons of competition.
City must now win their final game against Sydney next week to guarantee themselves second spot, automatic progression to the semi-finals and qualification for the AFC Champions League Elite.
Meanwhile, the Reds have kept their faint finals hopes alive, but to finish in the top six, they need Sydney to lose their final two games against Western United and Melbourne City.
But City will be kicking themselves at their inability to remain in the premiership race given they had the lion’s share of shots on goal (16-6), shots on target (7-2), corners (8-2), passes in opposition half (207-105) and touches in opposition box (27-17).
Melbourne almost gave away all three points when Aziz Behich’s back header in the 89th minute lacked sufficient power, allowing Dylan Pierias to run onto the ball, but his shot from just inside the area was saved by the advancing City goalkeeper Patrick Beach who used his face to deny Adelaide.
In the fourth minute of stoppage time, Marco Tilio won the ball from Pierias and dished it off to Lawrence Wong, but the youngster took too long to dispatch in the box and was smothered by Adelaide’s defence.
Soon after Tilio’s through ball found Wong again, but with almost the last touch of the game, the teenager’s shot from the right edge of the six-yard box went way off line.
TILIO, CAPUTO OFF TARGET
Earlier on, Melbourne would’ve been scratching their heads as to how they didn’t grab the lead in the sixth minute when Yonatan Cohen sent a deep ball to Tilio whose header from the byline was acrobatically saved one-handed by Adelaide goalkeeper Max Vartuli jumping upwards.
From the spillage Max Caputo tried to mop up, but he was out of position on the goal line and only managed to head the ball wide with the open goal at his mercy.
CITY DOMINATES SECOND HALF
The hosts did the lion’s share of the attacking in the second half, starting in the 56th minute when Tilio’s cross into the six-yard box finished with Kai Trewin, whose quick shot on goal was blocked on the goal line by Adelaide’s Panagiotis Kikianis.
Moments later, Tilio unleashed from 19 yards but it went just wide of the left post and shortly before the hour-mark, Andreas Kuen had a ping from 25 yards but Vartuli was up to the task diving to his right.
Melbourne had another red-hot opportunity in the 64th minute when a magnificent Nathaniel Atkinson through ball found Kuen streaming into the box, but the latter’s strike from 12 yards was saved brilliantly by Vartuli.
Six minutes later, Cohen’s curling strike from 15 yards on the left was saved sensationally by Vartuli again diving at full stretch to his left to tip it wide.
WOMEN CELEBRATE
After City’s women’s team were presented their premiers’ plate at half-time, they continued their celebrations on the sidelines well after the men’s second half began.
And the fans at the south end were more than happy to join in the festivities, completely unperturbed that the men had re-started, in joyous scenes.
GOODWIN HURT
In the 31st minute, Adelaide’s Archie Goodwin injured his right hamstring and had to be subbed out almost immediately. The competition’s joint-leading goalscorer (13) was dejected as he walked around to the bench.
Wanderers secures finals spot and continues hot form
— Marco Monteverde
Western Sydney Wanderers stretched their unbeaten run to 11 matches and inched closer to securing a home semi-final with a 1-0 away win over Newcastle on Saturday night.
The Wanderers not only guaranteed themselves a top-six berth but also jumped into third spot on the A-League ladder courtesy of their narrow victory at McDonald Jones Stadium.
Should Western United beat Sydney FC on Sunday at Ironbark Fields, the Wanderers will drop to fourth.
However, with one round of the regular season remaining, they are on target to guarantee themselves at least one semi-final at CommBank Stadium next month.
Despite dominating for large periods against the Jets, Western Sydney wasted several chances to inflict a bigger defeat on the Newcastle outfit, whose slim hopes of playing finals football ended with last Sunday’s 3-2 away loss to Sydney FC.
However, having kept a clean sheet, the visitors only required the one goal, and it came in the 57th minute from substitute Zac Sapsford, who netted for the eighth time this season after being fed by hard-working Socceroos attacker Brandon Borrello, who pounced on a stray pass from Jets defender Thomas Aquilina.
Europe-bound Nicolas Milanovic failed to add to his 12 goals in the battle for the Golden Boot, but he still proved to be a handful, forcing two first-half saves out of Jets goalkeeper Ryan Scott and just missing the target with a second-half header.
The Socceroos hopeful, who is expected to move to Scottish outfit Aberdeen at the end of the season, but has also attracted interest from clubs in England, France and Croatia, said the Wanderers had been determined to lock in their finals berth.
“We’re coming for that grand final – that’s for sure,” Milanovic told Network 10.
The 23-year-old attacking weapon said he was concentrating on helping the Wanderers win the championship rather than be concerned about where he would be playing next season.
“I’m focused here. I’ve got another (regular season) game and then the finals, so I want to do my best here, and then whatever happens after that is after,” he said.
“Last year I had (overseas) interest too, so I’ve been dealing with that for a year and a half. You put it in the back of your head because you love to play football, and when you get out here (on the field) it all goes away.”
Earlier, Aberdeen manager Jimmy Thelin had been reluctant to discuss Milanovic’s likely move to the Dandies.
“I’m not going to comment on other teams’ players right now,” Thelin told reporters.
“As usual this part of the season the focus is on the games we have now and when we have something to say we will say it, but right now nothing.”
Roar goes one step closer to avoiding unwanted milestone
— Marco Monteverde
Brisbane Roar took another step towards avoiding the A-League’s wooden spoon with a 1-0 home win over Wellington Phoenix on Saturday.
A 58th-minute strike from Florin Berenguer – the Frenchman’s second goal in three games – was enough for the Roar to secure just their fourth win of the season.
The victory – which was also highlighted by the Roar’s first clean sheet of the season – stretched Brisbane’s unbeaten run to three matches, with the club now four points clear of last-placed Perth Glory.
While the Glory have played one less match than Brisbane, they will need to beat first-placed Auckland FC on Sunday at Go Media Stadium to have any hope of overtaking the Roar, with the Queenslanders – who finish their season this Friday night in Gosford against Central Coast – also having a far superior goal difference to the West Australian outfit.
Roar coach Ruben Zadkovich, who is expected to be replaced next season by Michael Valkanis, said he was “extremely proud” of his team.
“My belief never wavers in my players and my staff,” Zadkovich told Paramount Plus.
“It’s great to get a result and a clean sheet for our fans. It’s been very evident and clear how together the group is,
“It was a really good performance. For most games we’ve been super competitive and played some really good football.
“The group has stuck together through the adversity.“
The Phoenix’s loss continued their poor season, with Wellington suffering a 13th defeat in what has been an extremely disappointing 2024-25 campaign for the 11th-placed Kiwi outfit that last season fell just one week short of a grand final appearance.
Victory party after locking in A-League finals berth
— Thomas Smith
Melbourne Victory pulled out party tricks on a night where they celebrated securing finals football thanks to a win over Macarthur, who themselves kissed goodbye dreams of extending their campaign beyond the start of May with defeat in Campbelltown.
Arthur Diles’ visitors were an irresistible attacking force, particularly during the first 45 when they scored both of their goals, as they recorded a fourth win in six outings and laid down a real marker in the penultimate round of regular season action.
Ryan Teague marked his 50th A-League appearance by inking his name onto the scoresheet early on with a top bins belter he will not get tired of watching back.
Then, just as the hosts were establishing a foothold in the contest, Zindine Machach turned a dead end into a second goal, pivoting on the ball ahead of conjuring up a rabona cross that, via Nishan Velupillay’s slight touch, was cruised home by Kasey Bos after 36 minutes.
Former Bulls player Daniel Arzani was denied a third by the base of the post during the opening exchanges of the second half and the lifeline this provided was pounced on by Macarthur when Chris Ikonomidis halved the arrears entering the closing stages.
Back in the reckoning and needing nothing less than three points to keep top-six ambitions alive, Mile Sterjovski’s men threw caution to the wind and with a better connection, Dean Bosnjak could have equalised, but a consolation proved to be their lot as Lachlan Jackson produced a vital goalline clearance.
RETURNING RYAN RIFLES IN
After missing the home loss to Premier-in-waiting Auckland FC last time out owing to an ankle concern picked up in Wellington a fortnight ago, Victory’s midfield metronome made up for lost time by netting his fourth of the season after just four minutes.
Teague was the recipient of fine build-up play that saw left-sider Velupillay blister beyond Walter Scott before pulling the ball inside to Machach, who wisely opted against shooting to tee up his teammate.
The newly-capped Socceroo still had work to do from the edge of the ‘D’, but without hesitation, whipped his left-footed effort up where the owl sleeps to give Filip Kurto no chance.
FROM CLOSE CALL TO BREATHING ROOM IN 61 SECONDS
Macarthur fans were on their feet in anticipation of an equaliser when Jake Hollman’s technically-perfect volley slapped the crossbar.
Instead, it was the travelling supporters who were up standing as their team regrouped and launched upfield to land a sucker punch, with Bos – doing his international prospects no harm in front of Australia chief Tony Popovic – drilling in his second of the campaign, which proved to be the winner.
VICTORY MUST PRESS ON FOR HOME ADVANTAGE
Even having cemented their finals spot with a round to spare, Diles’ charges will be pushing to conclude the regular season with a success over out-of-contention Newcastle Jets at AAMI Park next Sunday.
Ending on back-to-back wins – should Western Sydney Wanderers drop points or Western United lose either of their remaining fixtures – locks in a home semi-final for Victory.
And with the besting of Macarthur elevating them up to third, for now, at least, scoreboard pressure is on their side.
Originally published as A-League, round 28 results and news: Western United stay in the hunt for Asian Champions League
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