Juan Mata scored twice and created another as Victory outclassed City 3-1 in the 51st Melbourne Derby.
The Spaniard opened the scoring with a goal of the season contender from 40 yards before doubling his tally with a powerful strike from the edge of the area. Max Caputo stretched well to pull one back for the hosts but Santos curled home the finisher in the 89th minute giving Mata his ninth assist of the season.
The win takes Victory five points clear of their rivals and up into fifth on the Isuzu UTE A-League ladder. Melbourne City remain in seventh, three points short of the finals places.
Victory created the first chance of the game when a flowing move saw Keegan Jelacic burst into space down the right flank, but when he found his wide counterpart Nishan Velupillay, he blazed his volley high.
The onslaught continued for the visitors as a chance fell to Charles Nduka. His volley from close range was strong but was hit too close to Patrick Beach, who reacted very sharply to deny the striker.
The quality that had been missing for the visitors arrived all at once after 20 minutes, when Juan Mata came upon a loose ball and clipped it over Beach’s head and into the net from the best part of 40 yards.
The Spaniard nearly doubled their lead just moments later when he wriggled through two defenders and sent his shot into the gloves of Beach.
The midfield trio of Mata, Jordi Valadon, and Denis Genreau combined cleverly as Victory started to sink their teeth into the game. Genreau slipped away from Ryan Teague and sent his shot crashing against the crossbar.
The hosts wrestled the game level against the run of play in the 32nd minute when Marcus Younis slipped around the Victory defence and sent his cross onto the head of Max Caputo, who stretched backward and nodded the ball into the bottom corner.
Younis flashed down the right flank again five minutes later and rolled the ball right into the path of Medin Memeti who failed to convert a golden chance from close range.
Mata worked his magic again after a quiet opening to the second half when substitute Matt Grimaldi squared the ball to the veteran just outside the area, and he drilled his shot venomously beyond Beach and into the top corner.
Victory’s poise was waning with five minutes to play when Jason Davidson connected with a corner but drilled his shot wide of the near post.
Then, in case anyone had mistaken him for just a finisher, Mata perfectly played through substitute Santos and the Brazilian swivelled onto his right foot and curled the ball – and the derby – beyond Beach and Melbourne City.
Melbourne City will travel to Auckland FC for their next match, while Victory face Adelaide United.
MATCH HIGHLIGHTS
WHAT THEY SAID
Juan Mata
Aziz Behich
Jason Davidson
Arthur Diles
Aurelio Vidmar
