A young Western Sydney Wanderers squad has been defeated 4-1 against Melbourne City in a pre-season friendly in Shepparton last night.
A young Western Sydney Wanderers squad has been defeated 4-1 against Melbourne City in a pre-season friendly in Shepparton last night.
Despite a lone goal for Wanderer Abraham Majok, goals by Harrison Delbridge, Florin Berenguer, Dario Vidosic and Riley McGree secured a comfortable win for City in their final pre-season hit-out.
The Wanderers opted to play an experimental line-up with Wanderers Academy players Abraham Majok, Lachlan Scott, Andrea Agamenonos, Daniel Wilmering, Noah Pagden and Thomas Aqualina all starting against the Hyundai A-League side.
City began the match on the front foot, having the better of the frenetic opening exchanges with Lachlan Wales and Ritchie De Laet teaming up to good effect on the right-hand side.
It took until the 21st minute for the deadlock to be broken with Frenchman, Florin Berenguer whipping in a dangerous free kick for Harrison Delbridge to head home leaving Vedran Janjetovic little chance in the Wanderers goal.
One quickly became two and provider became scorer when a lively Lachlan Wales produced a surging run down the right flank followed by a deep cross to the back post for Berenguer to calmly head back across goal to make it 2-0 City.
Despite constant City pressure, it didn’t take Western Sydney long to claw one back. Abraham Majok cut in from the right and fired a long-range effort into the top corner, giving the Wanderers the impetus to turn the tie on its head leading into half time.
On 67 minutes Berenguer was at it again, causing havoc on the left turning back and forth before crossing into the box only for the ball to be handled in the air by Majok, gifting City a penalty which Dario Vidosic, a substitute on for Lachlan Wales, coolly slotted away to make it 3-1.
With more substitutions to follow, the game became disjointed with neither side causing many problems until on 91 minutes when substitute, Riley McGree collected a pass from Scott Jamieson, beat two defenders and rifled into the right corner of the net.
Western Sydney Wanderers: Vedran Janjetovic, Abraham Majok, Lachlan Scott, Andrea Agamemnonos (80, Fabian Monge), Daniel Wilmering, Noah Pagden, Ruon Tongyik, Jordan O’Doherty, Nick Fitzgerald, Bruce Kamau, Thomas Aqualina
SUBS UNUSED:, Danijel Nizic, Adrian Valenti,Sam Silvera, Mohamed Al-Taay
