A new-look Melbourne Victory has made a statement on the opening night of the A-League with a 4-1 thrashing of Western Sydney Wanderers at Etihad Stadium.
The Victory hit the Asian Champions League finalists hard and early with three goals in the first half and never looked back in a perfect start to the A-League’s 10th anniversary season.
It took the Victory just eight minutes to break through a brittle Wanderers defence, weakened by the absences of Nikolai Topor-Stanley and Matthew Spiranovic.
Gui Finkler played in a free kick from the right side and new recruit Matthieu Delpierre went through unmarked to side foot the ball past Wanderers goalkeeper Ante Covic for the first goal of the new season.
The Victory would double their lead 12 minutes later after under siege Wanderers defender Antony Golec handballed in the box.
Besart Berisha, the Victory’s biggest name signing and Golden Boot winner, stepped up from the spot to make it 2-0.
Victory captain Leigh Broxham then got in on the act, poking home a goal from close range after a spillage from Covic. Kosta Barbarouses should get the credit after he weaved in and out of traffic to fire in the initial shot before Broxham pounced.
At 3-0, it seemed a case of how far the Victory could stretch their lead, but the Wanderers hit back just before half time when Mark Bridge got in behind the Victory defence after a looped cross from the always-dangerous Labinot Haliti and tucked it past Victory goalkeeper Nathan Coe.
Any doubts over the destination of the three points was put to rest when the Victory pounced on a sloppy pass in the 54th minute, and, on the sling shot, Berisha found golden oldie Archie Thompson in metres of space for the fourth and last goal.
The Victory will feature in the Friday night game again in round two when they hit the road to face Adelaide United at the Adelaide Oval.
Star Weekly’s three stars
Kosta Barbarouses (Melbourne Victory)
Electrifying on the right side of the front line, constantly running at defenders and delivering to teammates with precision.
Not a stretch to say that it was his best game as a Victory player.
The best player on the park got subbed off in the middle of the second half to thunderous applause from the Victory supporters.
Besart Berisha (Melbourne Victory)
If first impressions last, Berisha is going to be a favourite of the fans and his teammates for a long time.
The Albanian never stopped running on and off the ball in clocking up the kilometres.
He scored a goal from the spot, but, more importantly, constantly found players in better positions to cause headaches for the Wanderers defence.
Gui Finkler (Melbourne Victory)
The heartbeat of the Victory side with most of the attacking moves having touched his feet at one point or another.
He was dangerous both from the dead ball situation and in confined spaces with his interplay with Barbarouses early a feature of the game.
The bottom line
Melbourne Victory 4 (Delpierre 8 Berisha 19 Broxham 28 Thompson 54) d Western Sydney Wanderers 1 (Bridge 41)
Crowd: 30,083 at Etihad Stadium, Melbourne.
