Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Melbourne: A late Kosta Barbarouses goal secured Melbourne Victory’s first win of the 2018 AFC Champions League campaign and reignited the Australian side’s hopes of a Round of 16 place, after a 1-0 win over Japanese champions Kawasaki Frontale at Melbourne Rectangular Stadium on Tuesday.
In the Group F Matchday Four tie, Kawasaki – quarter-finalists last year but yet to pick up three points prior to kick-off – started the stronger and Kei Chinen forced Lawrence Thomas into a smart stop before a Yoshito Okubo rocket from outside the area rattled the crossbar inside the opening 10 minutes.
The hosts responded, though, and James Troisi almost profited from a slip by Kawasaki goalkeeper Jung Sung-ryong that left his goal exposed. The Australia international’s attempt, however, was cleared off the line by the backpedaling Kawasaki backline.
The back-and-forth nature of the match continued right up until the interval, although neither side were able to end the deadlock before half time.
After the break, the parity continued with Terry Antonis and Okubo seeing shots go narrowly wide at either end, before Thomas was called into more acrobatics to turn away a 20-yard strike from Kentaro Moriya with under a quarter hour remaining.
With 10 minutes to go, the visitors thought they had gone ahead when substitute Yu Kobayashi stooped to head home at the back post, but his effort was ruled out for offside.
And Kawasaki’s disappointment was deepened further just before the game entered stoppage time, when Barbarouses finished off a well-worked team move to give Melbourne all three points and see the Japanese club go a fourth game without a win in this year’s continental game.
In their penultimate ties of the group stage on April 4, Melbourne will travel to Korea Republic’s Ulsan Hyundai while Kawasaki, who must now win both remaining matches to stay within a slim a chance of a place in the last 16, face a daunting task when there are hosted by Shanghai SIPG of China.