A-League semi-final: Melbourne crushes Sydney

Sydney FC won’t get the chance to defend their title after they were beaten in a controversial and dramatic A-League semi-final.

Luke Wilkshire of Sydney competes for possession with Christian Theoharous. Picture: AAP

They have been the best team for two seasons, but Sydney FC won’t get the chance to defend their title after they were beaten 3-2 by Melbourne Victory in an extraordinary, controversial and dramatic A-League semi-final at Allianz Stadium tonight.

Terry Antonis, the villain after putting the ball into his own net with just 13 seconds left in the game to give Sydney a lifeline at 2-2 and take the game into extra time, turned hero in scoring the winning goal with three minutes left in extra time.

He raced 40 metres before getting into the box and sliding the ball into the net to break the Sydney FC hearts.

The goal helped put the Victorians into next week’s grand final against Newcastle Jets at McDonald Jones Stadium.

There was more drama to follow straight after the goal as the Victory bench, including coaches raced on the field to celebrate. In the ensuing fracas, assistant coach Jean-Paul de Marigny clashed with Sydney’s David Carney and appeared to strike him.

The matter was reviewed by the VAR and de Marigny was sent from the bench while goalkeeper coach Dean Anastasiades was also shown a red card after a further review.

Both will face serious sanctions this week. They will almost certainly be barred from any involvement in the season decider.

Where to begin to describe this crazy game?

Sydney looked down and out until the own goal and had their chances to finish off the match in the extra time, but it was Victory who found the energy for one, last big effort via Antonis.

The Victorians had produced one of their finest efforts, coming from a goal down to lead 2-1 until the dying stages.

A Stefan Nigro own goal gave Sydney an early advantage after 24 minutes but Victory then scored twice through Kosta Barbarouses (31st minute) and James Troisi (47th minute) to go through to the Grand Final against Newcastle Jets at McDonald Jones Stadium next Saturday.

Full marks have to go to Victory and coach Kevin Muscat. They were up for the entire game and did not drop their heads even after the second equaliser.

Sydney, the best team all season by a long way, saved their worst performance for last during normal time.

It was a disappointing end for their coach Graham Arnold, who took them to such great heights over two seasons, steering them to the Premier’s Plate and Championship double last season, losing just one game along the way and to the FFA Cup and Premier’s Plate this season.

After four seasons, Arnold has coached his last game at the Sky Blues and will take up the Socceroos job at the end of the World Cup in Russia.

For Muscat, Saturday will be his third grand final in charge of Victory and he will get the chance to add another title to the won he won with the club in 2014.

Victory suffered a massive blow just 10 minutes before kick off when experienced defender Rhys Williams had to be helped off the field after appearing to injure his calf during the pre-game warm up.

The distressed look on his face and the concern from the trainers said it all as he struggled to walk back to the dressing room where the medical staff worked frantically on him as coach Kevin Muscat nervously walked around waiting for word.

Eventually, it was decided he could not play with Stefan Nigro coming off the bench to replace him. It meant a reshuffle of the backline with Thomas Deng moving from fullback to partner James Donachie in the heart of the defence and Nigro to right-back.

The television camera inside the Melbourne dressing room showed a visibly upset Williams propped up against a wall while Muscat gathered all his players around the defender and delivered a passionate pre-match speech.

The loss of Williams soon became telling.

Sydney had dominated possession in the opening 15 minutes and looked good, though they were not creating chances.

And, it was Victory who almost opened the scoring on 20 minutes when he found space on the right and fired a shot from the edge of the box that cannoned into the left post. It was a real left off for the home side.

Sydney punished them for the miss just three minutes later when Adrian Mierzejewski floated in a free-kick from the left. The ball struck Nigro on the chest and sailed into his own net to give the Sky Blues the lead.

That seemed to stir the visitors as they upped the tempo and started to expose a strangely shaky Sydney defence. Certainly they looked much more dangerous in the last third than Sydney did at the opposite end.

The Victorians were eventually rewarded when Barbarouses found himself clear down the left flank. He cut inside the box and took a deflection off Jordy Buijs and found the back of the net to level things up at 1-1.

It didn’t take long for the Victorians to assert themselves in the second half, taking the lead just two minutes into the half after a terrible mistake from Josh Brillante who gave the way away deep inside his own half.

Berisha pounced quickly to send a terrific pass to Troisi on the left and he had no trouble putting the ball away to make it 2-1.

Sydney seemed to drop their heads at this point and Victory raised in confidence as they forced the home side into mistakes.

Realising their season was slipping away, the Sky Blues lifted in the final 15-20 minutes and almost got an equaliser when Bobo climbed high to head the ball goal-bound only for Thomas to make a stunning one handed save.

Victory survived some nervous moments in the dying minutes especially when Ben Warland hit the cross bar with a shot in injury time.

Warland then missed a header seconds later.

But, there was a sting in the tail in the last seconds when Antonis turned the ball into his own net, giving Sydney a lifeline and sending the game into extra time.