. Wellington Phoenix beats Melbourne City 1-0 after B. Kraev scored just 1 goal (48′).
Jamie Maclaren squandered a decisive penalty (74′). That would have allowed Melbourne City to draw the match.
The match was played at the Wellington Regional Stadium stadium in on Saturday and it started at 4:30 pm local time. The referee was Lachlan Keevers who was helped by Mark Rule and Andrew Meimarakis. The 4th official was Anna-Marie Keighley. The weather was light rain. The temperature was cold at 11.33 degrees Celsius or 52.39 Fahrenheit. The humidity was 83%.
Match Statistics
- 45 Ball Possession 55
Shots
- 8 Total 21
- 6 On Target 6
- 2 Off Target 8
- 1 Shots blocked 7
- 83 Attack 108
- 34 Dangerous attack 91
- 80 Ball safe 71
- 0 Penalties 1
- 3 Corners 8
Fouls
- 5 Total 7
- 1 Yellow Cards 1
- 0 Double Yellow 0
- 0 Red Card 0
Other
- 4 Substitutions 5
Ball possession
Melbourne City was in firm control of the ball 55% while Wellington Phoenix was struggling with a 45% ball possession.
Attitude and shots
Melbourne City was putting more pressure with 91 dangerous attacks and 21 shots of which 6 were on target. Nonetheless, Wellington Phoenix succeeded in find the solution to win this contest.
Wellington Phoenix shot 8 times, 6 on target, 2 off target. Talking about the opposition, Melbourne City shot 21 times, 6 on target, 8 off target.
Cards
Wellington Phoenix received 1 yellow card (Bozhidar Kraev). Talking about the opposition, Melbourne City received 1 yellow card (Curtis Good).
Match Timeline
Standings
After playing this match, Wellington Phoenix will have 11 points like Western Sydney Wanderers to sit in the 2nd place. On the other side, Melbourne City will stay with 4 points like Perth Glory to sit in the 9th place.
Next matches
Wellington Phoenix – Formation
Wellington Phoenix started with a christmas tree line-up (4-3-2-1).
The manager Giancarlo Italiano decided to play with the following team: Alex Paulsen , Tim Payne , Finn Surman , Scott Wootton , Lukas Kelly-Heald , Mohamed Al-Taay , Alex Rufer , Nicholas Pennington , Kosta Barbarouses , Bozhidar Kraev and David Ball .
The home team had on the bench: Fin Conchie , Benjamin Old , Sam Sutton , Oskar van Hattum, Jack Duncan, Isaac Hughes and Matthew Sheridan.
Substitutions
Wellington Phoenix made 3 changes: Jackson Jarvie for Sam Sutton (68′), Mohamed Al-Taay for Benjamin Old (68′) and David Ball for Fin Conchie (79′).
Player of the match: Alex Paulsen
The most impressive player for Wellington Phoenix was the goalkeeper: Alex Paulsen. His rating is 9.08. He saved 1 penalty. He performed 5 saves.
Melbourne City – Formation
Melbourne City started with a conservative line-up (4-4-2).
Aurelio Vidmar played with: Jamie Young , Callum Talbot , Samuel Souprayen , Curtis Good , Aziz Behich , Léo Natel , Hamza Sakhi , Steven Ugarković , Marin Jakoliš , Tolgay Arslan and Jamie Maclaren .
The following players were sitting on the bench: Scott Galloway , Terry Antonis , Jordon Hall, Alessandro Lopane , Patrick Beach, Harry Politidis and Benjamin Mazzeo .
Melbourne City could not rely on the presence of Scott Galloway (injured) and Terry Antonis (injured).
Substitutions
Melbourne City made 4 changes: Tolgay Arslan for Alessandro Lopane (64′), Callum Talbot for Scott Galloway (79′), Hamza Sakhi for Terry Antonis (79′) and Marin Jakoliš for Harry Politidis (88′).
Player of the match: Hamza Sakhi
As per our analysis, the most impressive player for Melbourne City was Hamza Sakhi.
His rating is with 54 passes (89% accurate) and 2 key passes. He won 5 duels out of 6. He performed 6 crosses.
Results of the day
These are the results of the day in the A-League Men.
- Wellington Phoenix – Melbourne City – 1-0
- Central Coast Mariners – Newcastle Jets – 3-1
- Sydney – Western Sydney Wanderers – 0-1