MELBOURNE FAIL AGAIN

Melbourne Victory were unable to rectify their poor form after they suffered a 3-2 defeat at the hands of Yokohama F. Marinos in the Asian Champions League. Melbourne Victory came into the match on the back of a poor run of form, which had seen them go without a win in the last two matches. The run has been extended to 3 matches after this narrow defeat, which has increased the pressure from manager Kevin Muscat. He was left struggling with explanations for the team’s poor performance.

As a result of this victory, they have slipped into the third place of the group stages. They definitely need to win the next two matches in order to have any chance of qualification to the latter stages of the competition. For now, they will be switching their attention back to the Australian A-League. An away trip to Newcastle Jets is the most important priority for Muscat now. Things looked extremely promising for Melbourne at the start of the match, as they took the lead after just seven minutes. However, a great player from Yokohama meant that they were trailing 3-1 with only a few minutes remaining.

The injury time goal from Jeggo helped give the scoreline a flattering look to the Asian team. Muscat said that there is an air of positivity despite this poor result.

“Personally I’m very disappointed in myself. For that second goal I should have made an easy catch which is disappointing. I’m not making excuses, it was a poor error from me, but I was proud of the boys in front of me, I thought they did really well to be fair. The first two goals were cheap goals to give away and playing against a team like that those things can’t happen, but overall I thought, with the young boys in there, we held our own,” said goalkeeper Thomas.