Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Melbourne: Australia’s Melbourne Victory were denied a second 2016 AFC Champions league win on Tuesday after being held to a goalless draw by Korea Republic’s Suwon Samsung Bluewings at Melbourne Rectangular Stadium.
Despite a competitive 90 minutes, both sides struggled for quality in the final third as Melbourne missed out on following up their opening 2-1 home win over China’s Shanghai SIPG although Kevin Muscat’s side remain unbeaten in Group F after also drawing with Japan’s Gamba Osaka.
Suwon, meanwhile, moved onto two points from three games having also drawn with Gamba before losing to Shanghai earlier this month.
“It was a typical away performance from them naturally. They are a disciplined and extremely fit team. When you combine those two ingredients it's hard to break the opposition, especially when their mindset is as it was. They made it tough for us and we created two or three half chances and at this level you’ve got to take one of those – if you do it’s a totally different game,” said Melbourne coach Muscat.
“Having said that, I thought we worked tirelessly to try and create an opening, to try and get in behind them. It wasn’t to be, but it was a good solid performance from us.”
A quiet opening half saw the crowd bought to life following a nervous moment in defence for Suwon after Sin Se-gye over hit his backpass leaving goalkeeper No Dong-geon scrambling to clear his lines.
Kosta Barbarouses was providing a continuous outlet for Melbourne throughout the opening half on the right wing and Suwon goalkeeper No was forced to foil the forward at the near post.
Barbarouses also provided a cutback for Besart Berisha and Archie Thompson, but the onrushing pair failed to find a connection despite being unmarked inside the penalty area.
Suwon goalkeeper No was again was on hand to prevent Melbourne taking an early lead after executing an inventive save after Barbarouses’ cross was deflected and then parried over the crossbar.
Suwon, though, did have their chances as Kim Jong-woo twice went close for the visitors.
But Melbourne thought they had taken the lead shortly after the break as Daniel Georgievski flicked on from Barbarouses’ corner to the head of Thompson, who was then ruled to be offside after nodding his attempt into the back of the net.
Jesse Makarounas then squandered a great chance to hand Melbourne the lead as the midfielder skewed his attempt well wide of the goal after freeing himself up to shoot from inside the area.
With 12 minutes remaining, Suwon created one their best chances of the half as Baek Ji-hoon found the feet of Kim Jong-min who could only sidefoot his attempt over from 20 yards.
A quick snap-shot from Barbarouses late in the game saw Suwon goalkeeper No perform yet another sharp save, resulting in a scramble on the edge of the area before the visitors cleared their lines.
“After a long journey here to Australia, we played with our young players and our young players played very well. I was satisfied with the attitude and the play of the youngsters. Although we are still in the bottom of our group, we still have two home games and I think we still have a good chance to quality to the next round. It was a tough game,” said Suwon coach Seo Jung-won.
“We couldn’t get three points, but we are satisfied with one point as we changed seven players from our last game in Korea. If we brought all of our best players then maybe the result would be different, but it’s meaningless in football. One point is very valuable in an away game.”
Photo: Lagardère Sports