Youthful Victory falls short in Japan

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MELBOURNE Victory was left to rue two costly defensive mistakes on Wednesday night as it went down 3-2 to Yokohama F. Marinos in its Asian Champions League clash in Japan.

For the fourth time in this campaign Victory took an early lead, this time thanks to a James Troisi penalty in the seventh minute.

But hopes of recording a first win in Japan were short lived as Sho Ito and Kosuke Nakamuchi struck within six first half minutes to take back the lead.

In search of an equaliser, Archie Thompson caused late havoc in his attacking penalty box before Shingo Hyoto scored from the resultant counter attack.

Jimmy Jeggo scored an injury time consolation goal.

It was a long ball that caught out Victory's acting captain, Leigh Broxham, which led to Yokohama's first, while Lawrence Thomas coughed up what should have been a routine catch to gift the hosts the second.

Yokohama F. Marinos' Kosuke Nakamachi scores past Melbourne Victory. Source: AP

An undermanned Victory should be proud of its efforts against a full strength Yokohama side.

The underdogs didn't take a backwards step and, although Yokohama had the majority of the goal scoring chances, in general play Kevin Muscat's men held their own.

But that will be cold comfort to them as their hopes of getting out of the group took a serious hit.

In the other Group G match last night Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors moved joint-top with Guangzhou Evergrande on seven points after defeating its Chinese opponents 1-0.

That means Victory and Yokohama, tied on four points, are now up against it with two games to play.

Melbourne Victory celebrates opening the scoring in Japan from the penalty spot. Source: AFP

With seven A-League regulars ruled out, Muscat had no choice to field an line-up containing no visa players and seven guys aged 22 or under.

The inclusions of Japanese legends Shunsuke Nakamura and Yuji Nakazawa were two of six changes made to the Yokohama team that lost 1-0 at AAMI Park a fortnight ago.

But their presence didn't help early on as Victory played as if it was the home team, bossing possession until they got their reward via the penalty to Troisi.

A sustained run of possession ended with Jeggo playing through Jason Geria with a clever dink before the right back was dragged down in the box by Hyodo and a penalty was awarded.

Japanese teams are so renowned for their technical abilities, but Yokohama's first goal came in the most simple of fashions.

Yokohama F. Marinos' Yuzo Kobayashi and Melbourne Victory's Connor Pain vie for the ball. Source: AP

A route one effort from defence caught Victory's back four unawares.

The ball hit a backtracking Broxham in the back of the head and then fell to Ito, who cleverly dinked over a stranded Thomas.

Thomas wasn't to blame for that effort, but he would want his time over after playing a part in Yokohama's go ahead goal six minutes later.

Hyodo played a slick ball in from the left, the Victory keeper didn't catch it and with Broxham caught unawares Nakamuchi capitalised on a duffed clearance by drilling the ball in to the net.

To Victory's credit it gained back the ascendancy in the 10 minutes before the break.

Starting the second half from behind for the first time in this year's ACL, Victory still pressed, but Yokohama had the better of the half's early chances, including a penalty shout to Nakamura.

As the rain started to fall Andrew Nabbout had some promising moments after coming on in the 70th minute, but in truth Yokohama - inspired by the brilliance of Nakamura - were the more likely to add to the score and did so via Hyoto.

Jeggo, who will miss the next game through suspension, gave his team late hope by tapping in two minutes later, but it wasn't to be.

Re-live the action in our blog below.

Don't forget to get free tickets to the Fox Football live podcast in Sydney on April 17.

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