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12May24
Advantage Wellington After Scoreless First Leg
by Jeremy Ruane
Wellington Phoenix enjoy a slight advantage in their Isuzu Ute A-League semi-final against Melbourne Victory, after the teams fought out a scoreless draw in front of 16,313 fans at AAMI Park on 12 May.
The home team enjoyed by far the better of the exchanges, but simply couldn’t break down Wellington’s resolute defensive structure, with
Finn Surman, Scott Wootton and, in particular, captain Alex Rufer – sitting in front of the central defenders – producing massive personal performances to ensure the visitors went home with what they sought from the off – a clean sheet.
‘Twas Wellington who carved out the first chance of the match, a third minute opening sparked by Sam Sutton’s cross-field ball to fellow fullback Tim Payne. He combined with Costa Barbarouses to allow Nick Pennington to whip in a low cross for the benefit of Bozhidar Kraev. His shot was blocked by Jason Geria, with Roderick Miranda clearing up afterwards.
Melbourne sooned gained the ascendancy after this early scare, but fired wayward shots until the 23rd minute, when Adama Traore and Salim Khelifi combined to create an opening for Bruno Fornaroli, who evaded a challenge before seeing his shot deflect off Surman into the grateful gloves of Alex Paulsen.
Wellington’s goalkeeper then pawed out a Roly Bonevacia corner from beneath his crossbar, then looked on as Surman headed Khelifi cross past his near post after Rufer had been caught in possession by Traore – one of very few errors made by the visitors’ skipper throughout proceedings.
Wellington mustered a rare raid in the 32nd minute, Pennington blocking a Traore pass just outside Melbourne’s penalty area. The ball broke for Barbarouses, who skipped past an opponent but was foiled in the act of shooting by Pennington, who was every bit as eager as the in-form striker to give his team the lead. Between the pair of them …
oh dear, how sad, never mind!
Back came Melbourne, Pennington making amends for his contribution to the previous incident with a well-timed tackle to deny Fornaroli. Paulsen then grabbed a curling effort from Jordi Valadon beneath the crossbar, and kept out another attempt by Bonevacia after referee Adam Kersey failed to play
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an advantage for Melbourne when they were raiding at pace, instead stopping play to book David Ball.
That incident came seconds after Ball had picked out Barbarouses’ angled run into the penalty area, from where he looked to pick out Kraev with a cross, only for Geria to step in and avert the danger.
The Bulgarian fired Wellington’s only shot of note in the second spell, a twenty-five yard grasscutter in the 63rd minute which was deflected to safety. Otherwise, it was all Melbourne, but they continually came up short against the visitors’ “yellow wall”.
Fornaroli and Valadon prised open said obstruction just shy of the hour mark, only for Ball to volley clear on the edge of the goal area. Nishan Velupillay then slammed an eight yard drive into a defender, while a vital Wootton clearance prevented substitute Ben Folami from capitalising on an opening created by the industry of Ryan Teague and
Fornaroli.
Folami directed a header straight at Paulsen in the 72nd minute, the first time Melbourne had tested the ‘keeper in the second spell. It wasn’t the last, however, with Fornaroli stinging his gloves from
twenty yards as the game moved into the last ten minutes.
Still Melbourne pressed, and still Wellington repelled them, Surman blocking a Chris Ikonomidis shot six minutes from time, following a Velupillay lay-off. Three minutes later, there was a glimpse of an opening for the home team as Paulsen spilled a low cross from Ikonomidis, only to have his blushes spared by his alert colleagues, who cleared the danger and ensured that when the teams reconvene at Sky Stadium in six days’ time, they’ll do so with all to play for – it’s 0-0 at half-time.
Melbourne: Izzo; Geria, Da Silva, Miranda, Traore; Valadon (Brimmer, 60), Teague; Velupillay (Folami, 60), Bonevacia (Ikonomidis, 79), Khelifi (Arzani, 60 (booked, 88)); Fornaroli (Chapman, 79)
Wellington: Paulsen; Payne, Surman, Wootton, Sutton; Pennington (booked, 52 (Salas, 76)), Rufer (booked, 90), Old (Al-Taay, 90); Barbarouses, Ball (booked, 41 (Van Hattum, 64)), Kraev (Zawada, 76)
Referee: Adam Kersey
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