Canberra United fired off 25 shots but did not do enough to end Melbourne Victory's run to finals, instead playing a part in preventing their star midfielder - Kyra Cooney-Cross - from making an appearance next week.
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The scores remained locked 0-0 to allow Melbourne to hold on to a semi-final run but Victory will likely be without 20-year-old Cooney-Cross, after she received her fourth yellow card for the season to rule her out for the fixture.
With 35 shots fired off, fans were left scratching their heads as to how the game remained scoreless. Victory fired off 10 to United's 25 shots during the 90 minutes.
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Victory took control of the game in the opening 20 minutes before United fought their way into the match.
United's best chance in the first half came via a slip ball to Michelle Heyman, despite questions off offside from Victory's backline she fired a shot off straight to goalkeeper Casey Dumont.
It fell again to the ALW's leading goalscorer for the second phase, who crossed it to a man-marked Allira Toby, who barely got a touch, as an unmarked Sasha Grove stood metres away.
The 17-year-old goalkeeper for Canberra kept United in fixture by pushing an Alex Chidiac corner, destined from goal, 36 minutes in into the crossbar and out into play for a nail biting moment for fans.
The score was locked 0-0 heading into the second half, before Canberra came out firing in the opening minutes of the second half.
Individual brilliance from Heyman in the 50th minute almost saw the deadlock broken. The striker beat Victory's defence and took the ball right to six-yard box before Dumont stepped in. The rebound found Margot Robinne to try a hard-angled shot to no avail.
Cooney-Cross will miss the first game of the finals series after claiming her fourth yellow card for a late challenge from behind on Chelsee Washington.
The next strike came via Robinne again. Washington started the counter attack for United, finding substitute Holly Caspers near halfway. The striker played a perfectly timed pass to Robinne to go one-on-one with Dumont, but again the goalkeeper made no mistake and denied Canberra.
History repeated itself in the 78th minute after Heyman broke away from the defence and found herself somewhat off balance, firing off a shot straight to Dumont.
Minutes later Lincoln once again stepped up for her side and fended off a one-on-one chance to deny Victory's Harriet Withers a goal.
A through ball beat the visitors defence and Withers' pace allowed her to take the ball into the box before she fired it at Canberra's shot stopped.
A long range effort from Cooney-Cross rattled the cross bar and rebounded to Catherine Zimmerman's feet. Her follow up shot beat Lincoln but it was disallowed after Victory's Chidiac was deemed to have obstructed the goalkeeper's view from an offside position.
One silver lining heading into the semi-finals for Victory will be the return of star striker Melina Ayres, after she returned to the pitch against United for the first time this season.
Isobel Cootes
Sports reporter at The Canberra Times. A Novocastrian with a passion for football (or soccer as they call it in the capital) via The Examiner and The Port Lincoln Times.
Sports reporter at The Canberra Times. A Novocastrian with a passion for football (or soccer as they call it in the capital) via The Examiner and The Port Lincoln Times.
