Melbourne Victory smash Adelaide 2-1 - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Melbourne Victory smash Adelaide 2-1

04/02/2007 08:34:03 PM Comments (0)

A stunning injury-time winner to substitute James Robinson has put Melbourne Victory into the A-League grand final after a 2-1 win in the major semi-final second leg at Telstra Dome.

Robinson looped in a header in the second minute of injury-time to save his side after they looked like losing the tie on the away goals rule with the scores deadlocked at 1-1.

Melbourne now advances to the grand final in a fortnight's time, which will be played at Telstra Dome.

Adelaide must now play Newcastle Jets in a sudden-death preliminary final in Adelaide next Sunday, with the winner advancing to the grand final.

For most of the match, Adelaide's fourth minute goal to Socceroo Travis Dodd looked like being the decider, with a Diego cross finding Dodd leaping high at the far post to put the home side on the backfoot.

But roared on by a crowd of more than 47,000, Melbourne gave themselves hope of getting the win they needed early in the second half.

A brilliant solo goal from Victory striker Danny Allsopp, in which he beat three defenders then unleashed a left-foot shot in the 48th minute, brought the scores level.

Adelaide defended bravely and looked set to take the grand final back to Adelaide as they repelled attack after attack and the away goals count double rule looked set to be invoked.

But then Robinson, a late-season signing who had only been on the pitch for seven minutes, got on the end of a far post cross to win his side the tie 2-1 on aggregate after the teams drew 0-0 in the first leg in Adelaide last week.

Newcastle beat Sydney 2-0 on Friday night and 3-2 on aggregate in their minor semi-final to qualify for the preliminary final.

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