Juric on target as Adelaide United beat Melbourne City

Updated: May 17, 2023, 05:11 am

Two second-half goals helped guide Adelaide United to a 2-0 win over 10-man Melbourne City at Coopers Stadium.

The Reds netted twice after the interval to record their first win for the campaign. City skipper Scott Jamieson was shown a second yellow card just after the hour for a second bookable offence with Tomi Juric registering his first goal of the season from the ensuing free kick.

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City started strongly and had their first chance after seven minutes when Scott Jamieson thread through Jamie Maclaren but his first-time effort was saved by James Delianov in the Reds' goal.

City continued to threaten Adelaide's goal and Delianov was called into action again on the quarter hour, tipping over a long-range drive from Marco Tillio after Adelaide failed to clear a corner.

United worked their way back into the contest and had a couple of chances in quick succession. Ben Halloran had a shot blocked after Tomi Juric tumbled in the box and had his calls for a penalty waved away. A minute later Halloran miscued wide after being teed up by Louis D'Arrigo at the end of a swift Reds counter.

Tomi Juric's free kick opened the scoring for Adelaide United.
Getty

Although kept relatively quiet, Maclaren looked dangerous and was again denied by Delianov on 24 minutes with Jordan Elsey forced to clear the saved shot off the line.

Adelaide's best chance came just before the half hour following another quick counter. Halloran was involved again, feeding Stefan Mauk who perfectly set up Yaya Dukuly but the young speedster curled his effort past the post.

The visitors started the better of the two sides after the break and had the ball in the net on 53 minutes when Maclaren pounced on the Reds' sloppy playing out from the back, but the goal was ruled out for offside.

City were reduced to 10 men just after the hour when Dukuly was upended just outside the area by Jamieson who was promptly issued with his second yellow card.

The Reds broke the deadlock from the resultant free-kick when D'Arrigo played a square ball for Juric who powered a shot past Thomas Glover in the City goal.

Ten minutes later and United doubled their lead with some neat combination play at the top of the box. Mauk exchanged passes with substitute Mohamed Toure and drove through the penalty area before his shot deflected off Royston Griffiths, wrong-footing Glover.