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Melbourne City bounced back from an extremely disappointing 3-0 loss at home to the Western Sydney Wanders last week to secure a 1-1 draw with league leaders Brisbane Roar at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night.
Frenchman Harry Novillo opened the scoring for City, as Roar goalkeeper Jamie Young made a shocking mistake, kicking the ball into teammate Daniel Bowles, who had his backed turned on the play. City midfielder Aaron Mooy pounced on the loose ball and Novillo finished, tapping it in after Young saved Mooy’s attempt.
Supersub Henrique ensured Brisbane got a point, as he beat makeshift City defender Jacob Melling after an immaculate ball from Thomas Broich and slid the ball past City keeper Thomas Sorensen. That 70th minute goal would be the last of the game.
The point ensured the Roar stay atop the A-League ladder for at least another week, with a match-up with the Newcastle Jets their next assignment.
City remain seventh on the table and begin preparations for yet another Friday night affair, this time hosting the Perth Glory at AAMI Park.
Here are three stats that mattered from City’s draw with the Roar.
5 – City shots on target
Melbourne had the better of the attacking chances, with five shots on target compared to only three from Brisbane. City also led for total shots on goal, 12-9.
Shot accuracy was where Brisbane got the better of City though, as the Roar went at exactly 50 per cent, while City only had a strike rate of 41.7 per cent.
City have been criticised for attempting to walk the ball into the net. They’re also often searching for the perfect goal, which sometimes leads to too many passes and not enough shots. While this was seen on occasions in Brisbane, for the most part Melbourne opened up a little bit more when attacking.
City have a number of goal-scoring options – from Mooy’s cracking outside shots to Novillo’s powerful strikes inside the box, it isn’t a lack of talent that stops Melbourne from scoring. In fact, the team is first in the league for goals scored this season, with 13, and Bruno Fornaroli leads the A-League in goals scored, with five.
The thing that stops City from scoring more is that they look afraid to shoot at times. This wasn’t the case on Friday, and if they can convert on the quality chances they created in Brisbane, the goals will come fast and furious.
57.4 – percentage of game time Brisbane was in possession
The Roar controlled general play, with 57.4per cent of possession, while also completing 478 passes compared to City’s 350.
Brisbane also had greater passing accuracy, as they completed 81.4 per cent of their passes, while Melbourne completed 78.6 per cent.
Only 14.4 per cent of Brisbane’s passes were long passes, which highlights how they controlled the game in the midfield and had the pace of the game in their hands.
Star Roar players Broich and Matt McKay constantly tore City apart. Broich has been one of the A-League’s best throughout his entire career, and his brilliant passing and attacking abilities were on full display on Friday, Melbourne with no answer to the German.
Socceroos mainstay McKay was also able to show his quality against City, creating numerous chances for the Roar and often leaving Melbourne defenders in the dust.
28 – City tackles
City’s injury list this season has been well documented, and Friday night saw John van’t Schip go to a makeshift back four.
Holding down Melbourne’s defence in Brisbane was Matt Miller, in his first A-League start, midfielder Jacob Melling, Connor Chapman and Jack Clisby. The average age of these four is 20.75 years.
This fact further emphasises how well the young City defence held up in Brisbane, with 28 tackles compared to only nine from the Roar. City won 82.1 per cent of these tackles, and had 17 clearances.
All that said, City’s defence wasn’t perfect. There were many times where the Roar got in behind and probably should have scored, although Sorensen was his usual, brilliant self in goals.
Sometimes, you need to win – or draw – ugly. That was the case for Melbourne on Friday night, and the makeshift back-four did more than enough to quell the second highest scoring team in the league.
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