Vergos scores first goal leading the way to Victory’s 3-1 win over Melbourne City
Source: NEOS KOSMOS
Patrick Kisnorbo admits the emotion of his first triumph over Melbourne City as Melbourne Victory coach will take time to sink in.
But City counterpart Aurelio Vidmar is already dwelling on the “horrendous” half-hour he didn’t see coming.
A scintillating start set up former City captain and coach Kisnorbo to claim a 3-1 win and bragging rights in Saturday night’s derby.
“There’s obviously a rivalry between both sets of teams and clubs but I just treated it like any other game and thought the boys did really well, especially in the first half,” Kisnorbo said.
“To be honest, I was pretty much concentrating as much as I could on the game.
“When I go home and reflect, I’ll probably feel something there and notice it a bit more.”
Kisnorbo’s decision to start recruit Nikos Vergos ahead of Bruno Fornaroli paid off as the Greek striker snared a goal and an assist within the opening 12 minutes.
The game exploded when Vergos slipped through Nishan Velupillay in the fifth minute.
The Socceroo burst forward, shrugged off Aziz Behich and coolly finished.
Seven minutes later, Reno Piscopo went on a spellbinding run before cutting back for Vergos to finish first-time.
Victory almost made it 3-0 in the 20th minute when Zinedine Machach’s shot deflected off City defender Samuel Souprayen and wrong-footed goalkeeper Patrick Beach – but it was chalked off after a VAR review for a Teague handball.
The superb Teague charged down Beach for Victory’s third in the 25th minute in front of 20,093 fans at AAMI Park on Saturday night.
“Horrendous. Horrendous,” coach Aurelio Vidmar said.
“We weren’t even close to the football for the first 20 minutes. Every duel we lost, we weren’t competitive. We weren’t moving quickly and that is definitely not us.
“We’ve trained hard for those things through the pre-season and also made a great fist of it last week.
“For the first 20-25 minutes tonight, that did not exist and if you can’t get up for a game like this, there’s something definitely wrong.”
Vidmar noted a vastly improved second-half performance.
“But Christ, do we need to cop three goals before we actually turn up?” he said.
Vidmar didn’t risk Socceroo Mathew Leckie but his makeshift midfield pairing of Nathaniel Atkinson and Kai Trewin were well-beaten by Teague and Jordi Valadon.
City skipper Behich was lucky not to receive any card for an apparent stamp on Vergos late in the first half, while Andrew Nabbout tapped home in the 64th minute to give City some hope.
Israeli winger Yonatan Cohen, who received boos from some of the Victory fans whenever he touched the ball, sparked the game when his long-range shot forced Duncan to parry to a waiting Nabbout.
But Victory saw out the game.
Kisnorbo’s side host Macarthur next Sunday while City play Western United the following evening.
The original article: NEOS KOSMOS .
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