A hat-trick from Besart Berisha has seen Melbourne Victory take a 3-0 win over the Western Sydney Wanderers on Saturday night.
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Final score
Western Sydney Wanderers 0
Melbourne Victory 3
The road to climb into the finals spots seems to get harder and harder for the Western Sydney Wanderers as they face Melbourne Victory in front of a big crowd at ANZ Stadium on Saturday. Join The Roar for lives scores and a blog of the match, starting from 7:50pm (AEDT).
The Wanderers scored two or more goals in a match for the first time in two months last week when they traveled to the Central Coast to put four past the hapless Mariners.
The Wanderers finally got their shooting boots on last week, where their foreigners reigned supreme. Japanese winger Jumpei Kusukami scored for his second match in a row, expressing his quick feet and control in the box, while marquee man Nico Martinez lead the line once again for the Wanderers getting his third goal and fourth assist of the season.
The Wanderers, as explored last week, have learned to take their chances much more effectively with their midfielders clocking up the tally’s for goals and assist, relying on their strikers to make an impact in the latter stages of matches instead as we saw Brendan Santalab put the nail in the coffin late in the match against the Mariners.
The war against Melbourne however will be a lot tougher than the Mariners, as the Victory possess one of the most creative midfielders in the competition in James Troisi. Over the past two matches Troisi has hit the ball on target on over nine occasions and has created on average two clear cut chances per match.
If the Wanderers want to take control of this match, they will need to block the avenues to goal through tight marking of James Troisi and Marco Rojas. However, as the Wanderers’ fluidity going forwards in midfield is gaining momentum, their defensive work in midfield still remains poor.
Melbourne Victory were below par in their 1-1 draw last week to Perth Glory. A total of 21 shots with six on target failed to breach the already weakened Perth Glory defence last week, leaving Victory frustrated with their wasted chances heading to Sydney.
The extent of their failure to rack up the goals last week saw their front three in Besart Berisha, Fahid Ben Khalfallah and Marco Rojas attempt eight shots, with only three of them on target.
It’s clear to see the cracks in the Melbourne Victory front line, once so potent is losing its effectiveness which is a worry with quality players that they possess.
Their midfield is working exceptionally in defence and in attack and their transition is terrific, with their midfield three of James Troisi, Oliver Bozanic and Carl Valeri managing 22 recoveries, tackles and interceptions which garnered a dominant 65 per cent possession.
We know Melbourne’s threat going forward is one to be wary of and if they have even half a better match than that against Perth, they’ll be confident to replicate the earlier 3-0 thumping of the Wanderers last month. In Sydney, I’m going to predict Melbourne to gather another Victory.
Join The Roar for lives scores and a blog of the match, starting from 7:50pm (AEDT).
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Roar Guru
Thank you for joining me tonight! What a performance from Victory! Sensational by Berisha! Thanks! Good Night!
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Roar Guru
FULL-TIME @ ANZ STADIUM IT FINISHES 3-0 TO MELBOURNE VICTORY Western Sydney Wanderers remained winless at home as they were trounced 3-0 again by Melbourne Victory courtesy of a classy hat-trick from Besart Berisha. Berisha added his tally up to eight tonight as Melbourne cemented third spot on the A-League ladder for round 10.
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MELBOURNE VICTORY SUBTITUTION OFF: BESART BERISHA ON: RASHID MAHAZI
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3 minutes of added time
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MELBOURNE VICTORY SUBSTITUTION OFF: Oli Bozanic ON: Daniel Georgievski
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BERISHA HAS A HAT-TRICK A LONG HEADER FORM MDIFIELD FINDS BERISHA BREACHING THE WANDERERS BACK LINE AS HE FINISHES WITH CLASS WITH THE OUTSIDE OF THE FOOT! HIS 8TH GOAL OF THE SEASON!
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CLISBY DENIED! NICHOLS DENIED! THOMAS SAVES, CLEARED OFF THE LINE! CLEARED EVERYTHING IS HAPPENING Bottom line... No wanderers goal!
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Roar Guru
YELLOW CARD - JAI INGHAM Most of us thought it was a red. Jai Ingham has had a tussle with Borda! and he kicked him! Yep kicked him, aaaand it's only a yellow!
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WSW SUBTITUTION OFF; JUMPEI KUSUKAMI ON: JAUSHUA SOTIRIO
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SAVE | Ingham recieves the ball form Berisha on the right and primes himself for a shot and strikes it well! Important save from Redmayne!
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WSW SUBSTITUTION OFF: BRENDAN SANTALAB ON: LACHLAN SCOTT 4 chances for Santalab 0 golazo's!
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ATTENDANCE TONIGHT 16,231!
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HOW GOOD WAS THAT!!! ABSOLUTELY SPECTACULAR HEADER FROM BERISHA! The cross from Ingham hooks into Berisha who is in between the two centre-halves and he leaps up to power it behind Redmayne!
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Roar Guru
Santalab can't take advantage once again of a good move started by KusukamI!
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MELBOURNE VICTORY SUBSTITUTION OFF: MAXI BEISTER ON: JAI INGHAM
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WSW SUBTITUTION OFF: BRUNO PINATARES ON: KEARYN BACCUS 10 Unsuccesful dribbles and passes! Bye
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LEIGH BROXHAM - YELLOW CARD
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DIMAS - YELLOW CARD Not sure what's happened here but Dimas has been given a card after Chris Beath at first allowed play to go on but has pulled it up after a few seconds! interesting!
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VICTORY HAD TO SCORE THERE Geria grills Clisby on the right and dances into the box, cuts it to Khalfallah on the edge o fthe box who tries the one-two with Beister but it breaks down at the very last second! Crucial interceptions by Borda! He has turned his game around in recent weeks! 0-1
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Roar Guru
Wanderers making inroads constantly in the opening stages of this first half! Clisb and Neville finding space inside the box but the final pass just isn't working for them! 0-1