At AAMI Park on Thursday night, Melbourne Victory and Western United tied 2-2. The host club had leads, losses, and conceded a late equalizer to Ben Garuccio.
Just before halftime, Western took the lead thanks to a goal by Daniel Penha, his seventh of the year. Michael Ruhs’ effort to put the hosts out of sight from the penalty spot failed, though, and Victory substitutes Ben Folami and Chris Ikonomidis scored twice in a little space of time to put the third-place team in charge of the local derby.
But Western wasn’t about to give up, as they salvaged a point due to a goal from Ben Garuccio with a slick finish in the final minute of regulation time.
Referee Shane Skinner’s review on the pitchside monitor rolled back to the previous phase of play where another handball, this time from Victory defender Damien Da Silva, was picked out, preventing the award of the spot kick. Victory had claimed an early penalty when Western’s Michael Ruhs handled the ball in the penalty area.
After a first-half flurry of activity died down, Penha was denied a wonderful opportunity to score when his header bounced off Connor Chapman in the box and fell invitingly for the Brazilian, but Izzo stopped his centrally placed drive.
Victory’s best chance of the half came from Roderick Miranda, who showed excellent control to chop around his marker and shoot just wide of the bottom-left corner. Angus Thurgate, on the other hand, missed a wide-open goal after Izzo’s clearance, as his shot from another postcode to the goal drifted well wide.
As the first half went on, Penha became more and more involved in the match, and with his fourth goal in as many games as he had scored this season, he finally broke the tie.
Ben Garuccio gave the home team a penalty kick seven minutes into the second half, but Western missed the opportunity to move ahead by two goals.
Garuccio went down in the box in a tangle of arms and legs with Salim Khelifi and after taking his time to assess the incident, referee Skinner pointed to the spot. Victory players and staff were adamant Garuccio had instigated the contact before going to ground but the original decision stood.
Michael Ruhs stepped up to take the penalty but his execution lacked quality, and Izzo guessed the right way to make the save and keep his side in the game.
Victory head coach Tony Popovic brought Folami off his bench in the 67th minute hoping to revitalise his attack and the search for an equaliser and three minutes later the winger’s injection into the contest paid dividends.
Bruno Fornaroli created the equalising goal with a superb cross into the six-yard box, and an unmarked Folami had the simple task of tapping it home to bring Victory level.
Ikonomidis was another of Popovic’s attacking substitutes brought into the game just prior to Folami’s equaliser, and the winger without a league goal since November 2022 was quickest to react to an attempted clearing header from Garuccio to break his drought and put Victory into the lead.
Da Silva provided the dangerous delivery into the box from the left wing and although Garuccio made first contact, Ikonomidis darted towards the front post, hooked his leg around Western defender Tomoki Imai and squeezed his volleyed effort into the bottom-right corner to put Victory in command.
Victory’s second of the night drew Popovic’s side to within a win of both Wellington Phoenix and Central Coast Mariners at the top of the live table – but there was to be another twist late in the game as Penha fed Garuccio into the box to score a dramatic equaliser.
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