Jeff Hopkins

Melbourne Victory's A-League Women coach Jeff Hopkins at Unite Round during the 2024/25 season. Photo: Poletti/Round Ball Australia

Melbourne Victory emerged 3-1 winners over Adelaide United at Coopers Stadium on Sunday, making the most of their chances in a match that wasn’t necessarily reflected by the scoreline.

Some quality direct football from Victory goalkeeper Courtney Newbon found Emily Gielnik in behind the Adelaide defence to open the scoring in the 37th minute.

But the Reds retaliated quickly, capitalising on a dominant opening period for the side when Erin Healy, freshly back into the starting line-up, poked the ball into the net.

And while the game then became a back-and-forth encounter, with both sides generating chances, it was set pieces that became the deciding factor.

Two corners late in the second half led to two headed goals for Claudia Bunge, and ultimately a two goal buffer for the Victory heading into next week’s second leg.

Victory head coach Jeff Hopkins said following the game that while his game plan wasn’t perfect, being able to capitalise on set pieces gave his side the edge.

“We wanted to really knock on the door in wide areas; part of our strategy was to get the ball wide,” he said.

“We did that a fair bit but I don’t think we were as successful as I hoped we would be, but that was part of the strategy.

“And set plays, we had lots of them today and we looked dangerous every time we put the ball into the box.

“We’ve got players with good delivery like Alana Jancevski, Alex Chidiac, Alana Murphy, and we’ve got Bunge and Kayla Morrison – players of that quality attacking the ball – we’ve become very dangerous.”

And while Victory will find themselves heavy favourites heading into the next leg, especially with a 3-1 lead, Hopkins said that he still respects the threat Adelaide poses, and that they can’t afford to get too complacent.

“It’s nice to have [a two goal buffer], but I’m quite a cautious coach and I’ve been around a long time and seen a lot of things so I’m taking nothing for granted,” he said.

“We’ll prepare for this game as a one-off game.

“It’s a dangerous game to play because our opponent knows they need to come at us and take a few chances, so our strategy has got to take that into account.

“I’ve got a huge amount of respect for Adelaide, for the way they’re coached and the way they play: they’re a very very good side.

“And you saw how close this game was, especially in that first half.

“Wherever we go we look to be positive and try and score and get on the front foot, and we were able to do that for big parts of the game.

“But it’s half time in the fixture now, so we’ll take nothing for granted.”

Adelaide, meanwhile, have an almighty task ahead to keep their fairytale season alive.

There were definite positives to take from the first leg: Claudia Jenkins made some great saves and the side generated plenty of chances, but physicality and efficiency haunted the Reds, and are key things the side will need to improve on.

Reds coach Adrian Stenta, though, said he sees enough in his side’s performance to give him confidence they can take the game to Victory next week.

“It’s not the result we wanted, I was pleased with the performance, though,” he said.

“I thought that especially in the first half we caused a lot of problems and were able to get the ball into good areas.

“It’s just a shame that we let ourselves down with a couple of set pieces at the end there that ultimately proved the difference in the game.

“But I’m not sure that the scoreline was an accurate reflection of how we played.

“I think if you look at this game vs the game against Western United, we looked a lot more threatening, we were a lot braver in possession.

“We came with a very clear game plan, and I think the players for the most part executed really well.

“We just need to stand up more and be a bit more physical. We needed to be stronger in those areas.

“It’s unfortunate, because I feel like we did enough to get something out of this game.”

The two sides will meet again next weekend for the second leg in Melbourne on Saturday at the Home of the Matildas, with kick-off scheduled for 2:15pm AEST.

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