A-League Review: Victory beat City in thrilling Melbourne derby

Defending A-League champions Melbourne Victory defeated Melbourne City thanks to a last-gasp Besart Berisha goal in a thrilling derby contest.

First-half goals from Victory’s Fahid Ben Khalfalla and Kosta Barbarouses were cancelled out by fine finishes from Bruno Fornaroli and Stefan Mauk in a three-minute second-half burst to set up a grandstand finish in front of a crowd of over 40,000 at the Etihad Stadium.

Both sides had chances in a frenetic end to the game but Berisha had the final word in the last minute. Substitute Connor Pain went on darting run down the flank he whipped in a dangerous ball across the face of goal. Thomas Sorensen could only parry away the danger and the former Albania international had a simple finish.

In the other game, Sydney FC continued their dominance over Newcastle Jets as Alex Brosque’s late header earned them a 1-0 win at Hunter Stadium on Saturday.

The 32-year-old captain took advantage of some slack defending from a corner to beat Ben Kennedy with a glancing header in the 89th minute.

Brosque had previously hit the woodwork as Sydney pushed for victory in the latter stages, while the Jets had a first-half header by Jason Hoffman wrongly ruled out for offside.

Sydney are now on a run of eight matches unbeaten against the Jets, who are yet to record a home win in the whole of 2015.