Kevin Muscat has farewelled Melbourne, but the exit door hasn’t quite slammed shut on the Victory’s Asian Champions League hopes.
Melbourne Victory’s 1-1 draw with Japanese rivals Gamba Osaka in their Group E clash at Etihad Stadium on Wednesday night leaves them bottom of the group with one match remaining.
But Tianjin Teda beat Korea’s Jeju United 3-0 in China in the other group match to seal their top two spot and give the Victory the slimmest of second stage lifelines.
The Victory must now beat Jeju in Korea next Wednesday, and hope Tianjin beat Gamba in Japan in the other match to qualify for the round of 16.
It is still a tall order for the Victory, but they can at least say they farewelled Muscat with a fighting performance against the 2008 ACL champions.
Muscat was playing his last match on Australian soil before he retires at the end of the ACL campaign.
And his teammates gave their two-time championship skipper the perfect start, stunning Gamba after just 12 minutes when centre-back Adrian Leijer powered home a header from a Carlos Hernandez corner.
Just three minutes later Victory also had a solid penalty shout turned down by the Qatari referee when Gamba defender Akira Kaji appeared to handle the ball inside the area.
Gamba lifted their rating soon after though, and blanketed the Victory for the remainder of the half.
Their equaliser came two minutes before halftime when Yamaguchi Satoshi hit the post, then Nakazawa Sota headed home the rebound.
But Victory were comfortably the better side in the second half, with winger Isaka Cernak and midfielder Leigh Broxham outstanding.
They poured on the late pressure and came closest to netting the winner they needed to stay alive for a top two finish in their group through Hernandez.
The Costa Rican’s 87th minute thunderbolt was well saved by Gamba keeper Yosuke Fujigaya.
Muscat paid tribute to his side’s gutsy effort to see him off with a quality performance against one of Asia’s best teams.
Gamba had thumped the Victory 5-1 in their ACL opener – which led to the sacking of previous coach Ernie Merrick.
Muscat said he was humbled by how much his team – minus three key players in Robbie Kruse, Grant Brebner and Surat Sukha through suspension – lifted in his milestone match.
“Everyone who took the field a couple of months ago in that game (against Gamba) let themselves down, let the club down,” Muscat said.
“The effort that the boys put in tonight in the last game for me in Melbourne was an unbelievable effort and I couldn’t be prouder.”
Gamba coach Akira Nishino admitted the Victory under new coach Mehmet Durakovic were much improved from their hammering in Osaka.
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