2021 A-League Grand Final

The 2021 A-League Grand Final was the 16th A-League Grand Final, the championship-deciding match of the Australian A-League and the culmination of the 2020–21 season. The match was played between season premiers Melbourne City and the second-placed team and championship holders Sydney FC on 27 June 2021 at AAMI Park in Melbourne.^[1][2][3]

2021 A-League Grand Final

A panorama of AAMI Park prior to kick off
Event	2020–21 A-League
Melbourne City Sydney FC 3 1
Date	27 June 2021
Venue	AAMI Park, Melbourne
Joe Marston Medal	Nathaniel Atkinson
Referee	Chris Beath
Attendance	14,017
Weather	Sunny and clear 12.0 °C (53.6 °F)
← 2020 2022 →

Melbourne City won their first championship by beating Sydney 3–1.

Teams

In the following table, finals until 2004 were in the National Soccer League era, since 2006 were in the A-League era.

Team	Previous final appearances (bold indicates winners)
Melbourne City	1 (2020)
Sydney FC	6 (2006, 2010, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2020)

Route to the final

See also: 2020–21 A-League, 2020–21 Melbourne City FC season, and 2020–21 Sydney FC season

The 2020–21 season was the league's sixteenth since its inception in 2005, and the 44th season of top-flight association football in Australia. Twelve teams competed in the regular season, with each team playing a total of 26 matches, resulting in an uneven fixture that involved some clubs meeting three times and others meeting only twice. The top six teams qualified for the finals series, which were played in a straight-knockout format, with the top two teams earning an automatic place in the semi-finals and the bottom four teams playing off in elimination finals. The two winners of the semi-finals met in the grand final. Melbourne City and Sydney FC qualified for the semi-finals by virtue of finishing first and second respectively, whilst Central Coast Mariners (third) met Macarthur FC (sixth) in the first elimination final and Brisbane Roar (fourth) took on Adelaide United (fifth) in the second elimination final. Macarthur defeated Central Coast Mariners two goals to nil, both goals coming in extra time and Adelaide United defeated Brisbane Roar two goals to one. As the top-ranked team, Melbourne City were paired with and defeated Macarthur, the lowest-ranked winning team, 2–0, for their semi-final, whilst Sydney FC were victorious against Adelaide United in the other semi-final, the scoreline being 2–1.

Due to crowd restrictions imposed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in Victoria, Melbourne City's home semi-final was moved to Netstrata Jubilee Stadium in New South Wales.^[4]

Melbourne City		Round	Sydney FC
1st place Pos Team v t e Pld Pts 1 Melbourne City (C) 26 49 2 Sydney FC 26 47 3 Central Coast Mariners 26 42 4 Brisbane Roar 26 40 5 Adelaide United 26 39 Source: A-League (C) Champion		Regular season	2nd place Pos Team v t e Pld Pts 1 Melbourne City (C) 26 49 2 Sydney FC 26 47 3 Central Coast Mariners 26 42 4 Brisbane Roar 26 40 5 Adelaide United 26 39 Source: A-League (C) Champion
Opponent	Score		Opponent	Score
Bye week	N/A	Elimination finals	Bye week	N/A
Macarthur FC	2–0	Semi-finals	Adelaide United	2–1

Pre-match

 

AAMI Park in Melbourne hosted the Grand Final

Venue

The Grand Final was held at AAMI Park, Melbourne, Victoria, the home ground of Melbourne City.^[5] It was the second Grand Final hosted at the venue, after 2015.

Attendance

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the stadium was limited to 50% capacity.^[6] Tickets for the game were sold out, resulting in a final attendance of 14,017 spectators.^[7] Due to a COVID-19 lockdown in Sydney, many travelling fans for the away team were unable to attend the match.^[8]

Broadcasting

The Grand Final was broadcast throughout Australia live on Fox Sports and streamed for free on Kayo Sports through the Kayo Freebies initiative.^[9] This was also the last A-League match broadcast on Fox Sports after a sixteen year association with the broadcaster, with the A-League moving to Network 10 and Paramount+.^[10] In the United States, the Grand Final was shown on ESPN+.

Match

Summary

Despite early dominance from Melbourne City, they slipped to an early disadvantage after Sydney FC's Kosta Barbarouses hit a powerful effort past City goalkeeper Thomas Glover. Shortly after this goal, the eventual Joe Marston medalist Nathaniel Atkinson scored for City to put the teams level at 1–1. In the 35th minute of the match, Sydney midfielder Luke Brattan was sent off after accumulating two yellow cards, allowing Melbourne to continue to dominate after this point in the match. They eventually won the game 3–1 thanks to further goals from captain Scott Jamieson and Scott Galloway, and claimed their first A-League championship.^[11][12]

Details

27 June 2021

17:05 AEST

Melbourne City	3–1	Sydney FC
Atkinson   23' Jamieson   45+1' (pen.) Galloway   90+3'	Reports^[13]	Barbarouses   21'

AAMI Park, Melbourne

Attendance: 14,017

Referee: Chris Beath

Melbourne City

Sydney FC

GK 1   Tom Glover RB 2   Scott Galloway CB 4   Nuno Reis CB 7   Rostyn Griffiths LB 3   Scott Jamieson (c) CM 10   Florin Berenguer CM 8   Aiden O'Neill CM 20   Adrián Luna RF 13   Nathaniel Atkinson CF 17   Stefan Colakovski   73'   74' LF 23   Marco Tilio   54' Substitutes: GK 33   Matt Sutton DF 19   Ben Garuccio DF 36   Kerrin Stokes MF 16   Taras Gomulka FW 11   Craig Noone FW 15   Andrew Nabbout   74' FW 35   Raphael Borges Rodrigues Head coach:   Patrick Kisnorbo

GK 20   Tom Heward-Belle RB 8   Paulo Retre CB 4   Alex Wilkinson (c) CB 3   Ben Warland LB 16   Joel King CM 17   Anthony Caceres   86' CM 26   Luke Brattan   25'   35' RM 11   Kosta Barbarouses LM 5   Alexander Baumjohann   72' CF 9   Bobô   38' CF 99   Adam Le Fondre Substitutes: GK 30   Adam Pavlesic DF 2   Patrick Flottmann DF 21   Harry Van Der Saag   38' DF 25   Callum Talbot MF 10   Miloš Ninković   72' FW 18   Luke Ivanovic FW 33   Patrick Wood   86' Head coach:   Steve Corica

Joe Marston Medal: Nathaniel Atkinson (Melbourne City) Assistant referees: Matthew Cream Nathan MacDonald Fourth official: Daniel Elder Fifth official: Wilson Brown Video assistant referee: Kris Griffiths-Jones

Match rules 90 minutes. 30 minutes of extra time if necessary. Penalty shoot-out if scores still level. Seven named substitutes. Maximum of three substitutions, with a fourth allowed in extra time.

Statistics

Overall statistics

	Melbourne City	Sydney FC
Goals scored	3	1
Total shots	26	3
Shots on target	8	1
Ball possession	69.5%	30.5%
Corner kicks	10	1
Fouls conceded	15	14
Offsides	1	1
Yellow cards	2	2
Red cards	0	1

Notes

References

1. "Competition Rules". a-league.com.au. A-League. 1 August 2017. Retrieved 28 May 2021.
2. "A-League 2021 Finals Series Dates Revealed". a-league.com.au. A-League. 4 June 2021.
3. "A-League 2021 Grand Final to be held at AAMI Park on Sunday 27 June". a-league.com.au. A-League. Retrieved 23 June 2021.
4. "A-League 2021 Semi Final between Melbourne City FC and Macarthur FC switched to Netstrata Jubilee Stadium". a-league.com.au. A-League. 17 June 2021.
5. "A-League 2021 Grand Final to be held at AAMI Park on Sunday 27 June". A-League. 2021-06-23. Retrieved 2021-06-27.
6. "All tickets sold for A-League 2021 Grand Final". A-League. 2021-06-27. Retrieved 2021-06-27.
7. "All tickets sold for A-League 2021 Grand Final". A-League. 2021-06-27. Retrieved 2021-07-02.
8. "Sydney COVID-19 restrictions force State of Origin, A-League grand final, AFL changes". www.abc.net.au. 2021-06-23. Retrieved 2021-07-02.
9. "Kayo Freebies: how to watch all the Finals Series action LIVE and FREE on Kayo Sports!". a-league.com.au. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
10. Perry, Kevin. "A-LEAGUE FINDS NEW HOME ON CHANNEL 10 AND PARAMOUNT+". tvblackbox.com.au. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
11. Jackson, Andrew (27 June 2021). "A 'moment of madness', penalty drama and quickfire goals — this A-League GF had it ALL". Fox Sports. from the original on 2021-07-09.
12. Rayson, Zac (27 June 2021). "Melbourne City claim maiden crown as Sky Blue dynasty denied in epic final". Fox Sports. from the original on 2021-07-09.
13. "A-Leagues". KEEPUP. Retrieved 30 December 2022.