Melbourne City’s Y-League side will be out to score their first win of the 2019/20 season when they take on Brisbane Roar at John McEwan Reserve in Shepparton on Saturday afternoon.
Having sat out the opening round of the season with a Round 1 bye, Petr Kratky’s season kicked off with an enthralling 6-6 draw with Perth Glory at C.B. Smith Reserve last Saturday.
16-year-old winger Raphael Borges Rodrigues got the season off to a great start, driving inside the penalty area and firing home the opener in the 23rd minute.
Sloppy defending over the next 15 minutes twice allowed the Glory to score, as they took a 2-1 lead, but it was short lived, as 2018/19 Y-League top scorer Moudi Najjar intercepted a back pass before slotting home an equaliser for City.
The goals continued to come either side of half time with Kerrin Stokes and Stefan Colakovski both finding the back of the net to give City a 4-2 advantage.
Daniel Bramwell scored on the 56th minute to peg City’s lead back to one goal but Borges Rodrigues’ second goal and a Jordi Valadon strike made it 6-3 after 63 minutes and City looked home.
It wasn’t to be, as the goal fest continued. Ciaran Bramwell scored two second half goals to complete his hat trick and Bryce Bafford netted late to complete Glory’s comeback and ensure the points would be split.
Having had a bye last week, Brisbane has also played just the one fixture so far in this Y-League season, which came a fortnight ago against Melbourne Victory.
A Mirza Muratovic hat trick headlined a big 7-0 win which sees the Roar sitting on top of the Group A table at this very early stage in the season.
The current Y-League champions are off to a flyer and will prove to be a big test for City who will be eager to bounce back from a disappointing end to their opening encounter.
Brisbane has the more experienced side with three 20-year-old’s starting in their season opener while City did not have any.
City also had four 16-year-old’s start in its only fixture this season, while Brisbane didn’t have a player younger than 17.
The Roar were able to win both meetings between the teams last year, 2-0 in Brisbane and 3-1 in Melbourne, with Muratovic scoring three goals across the fixtures for the Roar and Moudi Najjar being the only goal scorer for City.
Match Details:
Foxtel Y-League – Conference A : Round 3
Saturday, 30 November 2019
Melbourne City FC v Brisbane Roar FC
Venue: John McEwan Reserve, Shepparton, Victoria
Kick-off: 3:00pm
