Melbourne City has claimed its first A-League championship with a 3-1 grand final win over Sydney FC at Melbourne’s AAMI Park on Sunday afternoon.
The result reversed last season’s 1-0 triumph for the Sydney side in August
Kostas Barbarouses opened the scoring for Sydney FC against the run of play in the 21st minute.
But City’s Nathaniel Atkinson equalised within 90 seconds after excellent build-up play by Stefan Colokovski.
THE CAPTAIN, @ScottJamieson 💪
🎥: @FOXFOOTBALL#MCYvSYD #ALLive #ALeagueGF #WhoWillTakeItAll pic.twitter.com/FEV1hynjGU
— A-League (@ALeague) June 27, 2021
City was without Socceroos Jamie Maclaren, Curtis Good and Connor Metcalfe, while Sydney missed internationals Rhyan Grant, Andrew Redmayne and Ryan McGowan.
In their absence, Atkinson proved the star of the show, with the 22-year-old claiming the Joe Marston Medal for man of the match after giving the Sydney defence headaches throughout from the right wing.
City started off like a house on fire in front of a parochial sell-out crowd at AAMI Park at 50 per cent capacity.
The major turning point of the game occurred in the 35th minute when Luke Brattan collected a second yelow card and was sent off to reduce his side to 10 men for almost an hour.
#ALeague Championship sealing goal 😱
🎥: @FOXFOOTBALL#MCYvSYD #ALLive #ALeagueGF #WhoWillTakeItAll pic.twitter.com/z9BXSVGb9D
— A-League (@ALeague) June 27, 2021
Captain Scott Jamieson put City ahead from the penalty spot late in the first half.
Scott Galloway put the icing on the cake when slammed home a long-range belter in injury time to seal a premiership-championship double in Patrick Kisnorbo’s first season as coach.
THE TOILET SEAT IS OURS 🤩🤩🤩#CmonCity | #MCYvSYD | #ALeagueGF pic.twitter.com/Q5WNbG4TBN
— Melbourne City FC (@MelbourneCity) June 27, 2021
-with AAP
