Robbie Kruse has continued his red-hot scoring run to help Melbourne Victory come from behind and extend their winning streak against Adelaide United to 10 games with a 2-1 triumph in front of 16,269 fans at Etihad Stadium on Friday night.
Robbie Kruse has continued his red-hot scoring run to help Melbourne Victory come from behind and extend their winning streak against Adelaide United to 10 games with a 2-1 triumph in front of 16,269 fans at Etihad Stadium on Friday night.
The visitors had made a perfect start when Iain Fyfe headed home from a free kick in the opening minute but Kruse dragged Victory back on level terms midway through the half before Carlos Hernandez delivered the killer blow with 22 minutes remaining.
From there Melbourne dominated the contest without managing to quite bury their opponents, with Kruse running himself into the ground as he scored his fifth goal of the season and fourth in as many games.
Adelaide United entered the match unbeaten in 11 starts this season, having also set an Australian national league record of 13 games without defeat dating back to late last season but it was the hosts who maintained their own streak.
Melbourne Victory haven’t lost to Adelaide United since going down at Hindmarsh Stadium in October 2007 and haven’t even conceded a point in clashes between the teams since December of the same year at Etihad Stadium.
The game started in horror fashion for the Victory when Kevin Muscat conceded a free kick on the left for a foul on Matthew Leckie and Paul Reid fired in a superb ball that Fyfe got to ahead of Surat Sukha to head home.
The home side’s first real chance came in the 11th minute when Kruse couldn’t quite reach a superb cross from Tom Pondeljak while Kruse tested Eugene Galekovic again moments later before Sukha landed an accidental blow on the injured left knee Leckie came into the game with.
Within minutes Leckie left the field but with Adelaide slow to replace him Sukha took a quick throw in and got it back from Grant Brebner before laying it off for Kruse to lash the ball home inside Galekovic’s left post from 25m.
Fabian Barbiero belatedly came on for Leckie and headed just wide after Ricardinho had forced a save from Galekovic while Sukha was played in by Muscat but missed his chance trying to cut it back for Ricardinho instead of shooting himself.
Barbiero had a shot late in the half that Michael Petkovic forced over the bar and the goalkeeper also got a fingertip to a shot from Lucas Pantelis.
After coming on for Ricardinho at half-time, Mate Dugandzic nodded just wide while Kruse fired just wide after taking one touch to steady but there was no stopping Hernandez in the 68th minute.
With a flowing move that involved Hernandez, Kruse and Pondeljak, Dugandzic got just enough of a touch on Pondeljak’s cross to play it back for Hernandez to smash home from the heart of the box.
Leigh Broxham came on a minute later for Sukha and the Victory continued to pepper the goal, with Pondeljak going closest only to be denied by the post and Galekovic keeping his team in it with several other saves while Inseob Shin saw his goal-bound shot saved by Petkovic in the final minutes.
Melbourne Victory 2 (Kruse 21, Hernandez 68)
Adelaide United 1 (Fyfe 1)
