Sydney FC defeat Melbourne City in A-League Women grand final – as it happened (2024)

34 mins: Plenty of endeavour, commitment, and discipline from both sides, but a distinct lack of inspiration going forward.

32 mins: That tenacious Sydney midfield again does its job, allowing Vine to burst through the middle of the park. She tries to slide in Tumeth but the ball runs towards the corner flag and City clear.

30 mins: City may be dominating possession but they are increasingly struggling to break through Sydney’s midfield. Even when they do the ball is inevitably fed back with neither of the strikers able to turn and face goal such is the pressure on them from behind.

28 mins: After two Sydney players seemed certain to receive yellow cards, it’s actually City’s Grosso that’s first into the book for a late lunge after miscontroling the ball. You can imagine how the home bench feel about that. Barbieri deals with the resulting free-kick with ease.

26 mins: The frantic opening 10 minutes or so have given way to a tactical battle played out between the two penalty areas.

24 mins: City continue to dominate possession, always happy to play the ball backward to retain control, backing their defenders to keep the flow. The killer ball forward remains absent with Sydney continuing to look to pick them off on the counter. Twice in quick succession the ball reaches Ibini in promising situations but on both occasions there’s no end product.

22 mins: City, by contrast, are all about the structure and patterns of play, continuing to invite risk in their own penalty area. They almost execute this strategy to perfection but after a series of one-touch passes progresses them into Sydney’s half down the left there’s no final ball.

20 mins: Dos Santos thumps a volley high and wide from the edge of the box after Ibini’s excellent work in the left corner to rob Otto. Sydney are playing in bursts, but they have looked dangerous on their quick breaks.

18 mins: A scrappy couple of minutes for both sides ends with Hughes keeping things simple in midfield for City. The 22-year-old is growing into the key figure in this match, proving her defence with a screen when Sydney drive forward and offering the vision when City take possession.

15 mins: City’s control of the ball in defence and midfield is starting to grow, forcing Sydney to defend deeper. In classic CFG fashion this means any hurried clearance falls straight to another City player as they squeeze the available space. So far, Wilkinson has failed to find her footing further forward with a series of vertical passes rebounding off the Kiwi.

13 mins: The match has yet to settle into a rhythm, which suits Sydney, who are pressing aggressively in midfield to deny City room to play out from the back. The home side are not allowing that to put them off, drawing the blue shirts onto them in their own box in a bid to expose space downfield. It is high-risk high-reward stuff.

11 mins: Lovely long diagonal ball from Stott to release Galic on the right. She exchanges passes with Ekic and has a clear view of goal just eight yards out, only to tamely sidefoot straight at Whyman.

9 mins: Sydney again find the dangerous Vine on the counter with space to run into. She reaches the box, jinks inside, but City have enough bodies around the ball to clear. An eventful start at AAMI Park.

8 mins: Excellent driving run from Pollicina earns City a corner on the right. It should have also earned Chauvet a yellow card for repeatedly trying to pull her opponent down, but the advantage was played and Sydney survive. The corner isn’t dealt with initially but again City fail to take command of broken play in Sydney’s box.

6 mins: From an innocuous position the ball is allowed to travel a long way into the box and reach Wilkinson at the back post but the angle is narrow and Whyman gets her angles right to repel the chance. The ball rebounds into the danger area but nobody in light blue shirt grasps the opportunity and Sydney survive. Both keepers in the action early.

5 mins: Hughes does well in midfield to buy City a free-kick and give them chance to settle things down.

3 mins: City are struggling to retain possession as they regroup from Sydney’s bright start.

1 min: Barbieri with a brilliant save! The free-kick from wide is swung in, City deal with the initial header but after the second ball is lobbed in it finds Jordan Thompson unmarked in point-blank range but her clean strike is tipped around the post by the diving veteran. Barbieri then dominates her box to claim the resulting corner.

1 min: Sydney immediately on the front foot from the kick-off, freeing the speedy Vine down the right. She jinks inside and quickly earns a dangerous free-kick.

We’re underway at AAMI Park…

Expect City to line up in something resembling a 4-4-2 with the powerful Hannah Wilkinson the target up front. Sydney are more likely to adopt a 4-3-3 shape with Cortnee Vine, Princess Ibini-Isei, and 16-year-old Indiana Shae dos Santos forming a dynamic forward line.

Casey Reibelt is today’s referee, taking charge for her third grand final. The Queenslander was recently named the A-League Women Referee of the Year.

The teams are out in the middle of AAMI Park for the pregame formalities. City are in their home strip of light blue, Sydney are in their change uniform of dark blue.

It is a perfect autumnal afternoon in Melbourne. The sun is shining brightly, there’s a chill in the air, and neither wind nor rain are anywhere to be seen.

The visitors are unchanged from their semi-final triumph.

The hosts have been forced into one change with Brazilian shot-stopper Bárbara failing a fitness test. In her place comes Matildas veteran and club coach, the indefatigable Melissa Barbieri. Emergency signing Emily Shields takes her place on the bench. It would be some story if the 44-year-old won a championship, some 27 years after first being recognised by the national team set up… as an outfielder.

Jack Snape explores the perennial challenge of Australian football – transferring the popularity of national teams to the club sides that supply the players.

“If it was up to me, I’d let everyone in for free,” Dario Vidosic said on Sunday night at Aami Park after just 2,000 fans had watched his team secure their place in, and hosting rights to, the showpiece of domestic women’s football.

Joey Lynch sets the scene from AAMI Park.

One of these two sides will become the first in Australian women’s football to win a fifth title on Saturday. Both are worthy of the honour, having forever changed women’s football in the country. Perhaps that’s what makes it mean something more. Saturday is not just about being great, it’s about being the best.

Hello everybody and welcome to live coverage of the A-League Women grand final between Melbourne City and Sydney FC. Kick-off at AAMI Park is 4.15pm.

Not for the first time in recent seasons it all comes down to at least one team in sky blue. One or both of these sides has featured in every grand final since 2016, collectively winning six of eight championships. Together they also share the past five premiers plates. The two operations have set the standards the rest of the competition must aspire to reach.

City ended the regular season on top of the ladder on the back of their potent forward line. Three separate City players bagged hat-tricks during the campaign, including 17-year-old Daniela Galic, recently crowned the Young Footballer of the Year. Newcastle Jets were hit for six across the two legs of their semi-final.

Sydney finished two points adrift on the back of a parsimonious defence that conceded less than a goal per game on average over the season. As recently as February they kept city scoreless at AAMI Park.

You’d like to think the context of this match is heightened by the upcoming Olympics, but with squads for Paris limited to just 18 players, and Tony Gustavsson having little time to experiment, there isn’t going to be much of consequence for the Matildas. The singular exception is Cortnee Vine with the Sydney speedster becoming an integral part of Gustavsson’s plans

I’ll leave it there for now, but if you’d like to get in touch while I’m on, please fire all communication to jonathan.howcroft.casual@theguardian.com.