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A brilliant Archie Thompson double and grim defence salvaged a nine-man Melbourne Victory a gallant 2-2 draw with A-League leaders Brisbane Roar at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night.
The Victory had two players sent off by the 37th minute, but managed to keep the game scoreless from then on.
While the Roar’s record unbeaten streak stretched to 33 games, it was the Victory who would have gained the greater morale boost from becoming the first team this season to deny Brisbane maximum points.
In front of 24,820 fans, Victory began disastrously, to be a man down after 65 seconds and a goal down four minutes later.
Victory goalkeeper Ante Covic was sent off for bringing down Roar striker Besart Berisha, after the Albanian had stripped Melbourne captain Adrian Leijer and raced into the penalty area.
Henrique scored from the spot.
But Thompson answered superbly, taking a pass from Diogo Ferreira and lobbing advancing Roar keeper Michael Theoklitos in the 10th minute.
The A-League’s all-time top-scorer produced another gem to put the Victory ahead in the 22nd.
Harry Kewell dispossessed Henrique in midfield and sent Thompson into the box with an excellent ball, Thompson zig-zagging to wrong-foot a defender and Theoklitos, before finishing on his left.
Leijer’s second defensive error allowed the Roar to draw level six minutes later, the Victory captain tugging Thomas Broich’s shirt to give away a free kick.
Broich’s kick rolled straight at the Melbourne defensive wall, under the feet of the leaping defenders, leaving 19-year-old substitute goalkeeper Lawrence Thomas no chance to stop it.
The first-half drama continued when Victory youngster Matthew Foschini was unlucky to be sent off for a crude tackle on Broich, reducing the home side to nine men in the 37th minute and sending the crowd into uproar.
Predictably, the Victory then set up camp in defence.
Attacking players Kewell and Carlos Hernandez were both subbed off by the 71st minute.
But despite the Roar completely dominating possession and territory, they rarely looked like penetrating the Melbourne defence, with the nearest they came to a winner a long-range Broich shot which whistled past the right post in the dying minutes.
Victory coach Mehmet Durakovic was adamant Foschini should not have been sent off and said Melbourne would consider an appeal.
“The second send-off was unacceptable for us,” he said.
But Durakovic described his team’s commitment to hold on after that setback as “unbelievable”.
“We’re playing one of the best teams we’ve ever seen in the A-League, and to go down to nine men, I couldn’t be any prouder of these boys tonight.”
Roar coach Ange Postecoglou said his players became too caught up in the emotion of the dramatic first half.
“It was a weird old night. It was a crazy old night actually, it was chaotic in the first half and a little bit frustrating in the second half,” Postecoglou said.
“With everything that was happening in the first half we lost our composure a little bit and we struggled to regain it for the rest of the night.”
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