DERBY CHALLENGE AWAITS

Melbourne City returned from the international break with a bang and will be looking to carry that momentum into its long-weekend clash with Melbourne Victory this Monday.

City head into the highly anticipated derby as the away side but is riding high on the back of a 4-0 win against the Jets that saw four different names on the scoresheet.

Holly McNamara made a triumphant return to the pitch in the win, her first appearance in just under a year after an ACL injury kept her sidelined.

After working her way back into the side through a number of friendlies, McNamara finally got the chance to return to the starting line-up and she didn’t look out of place as she created a number of chances for City upfront.

Such was the ease at which she slotted straight back into the City side, it’s certainly a promising sign of what is to come for the rest of this season as she will no doubt only get better as she gets some match fitness back under her belt.

Rhianna Pollicina is another who put in a stellar performance last time out, the 26-year-old dominating in the midfield and creating numerous chances for not only herself but her teammates in front of goal.

She was incredibly unlucky to not have one or two more goals that day, rattling the crossbar on several occasions before eventually finding the back of the net with her curling shot into the top left corner in the 80th minute.

Both sides went end to end with chances in front of goal last time these two sides met, and we can expect this Monday’s match to be no different.

City has shown this season it likes to control possession and the tempo of matches to construct the style of football it wants to play, currently having the highest rate of possession of any team in the competition sitting at 62% while Victory isn’t too far behind with 54%.

Monday’s battle will largely come down to which side can win the possession battle and get the game on its terms in order to limit the opposition’s ability to have an impact with the ball at their feet.