Melbourne Victory have earned a hard-fought away win against table propping Western Sydney Wanderers, triumphing 2-1 at Pirtek Stadium.
Nick Kalmar cancelled out Carl Valeri’s stunning opening goal, before Finkler sealed it late from Besart Berisha’s good work in the box.
The game’s first chance fell to Victory when Berisha was allowed to play on after an alleged foul on Nikolai Topor-Stanley, before cutting back to Kosta Barbarouses who scuffed his shot wide.
The ball went down the other end immediately and Nikita Rukavytsa almost had his first A-league goal for Western Sydney, but Nathan Coe was able to tip his shot wide.
One of the passes of the season from Khalfallah to find Barbarouses on the opposite wing earnt Victory a corner, with Valeri smashing in a volley from its partial clearance to send Victory into the lead.
Western Sydney threatened for the remainder of the half, mainly through Rukavytsa, who had the better of Murnane on a number of occasions but could not deliver the final ball.
Barbarouses had two early chances to add to the lead in the second half – played through and shooting at Covic on one occasion, then skipping into the box but missing wide after a spell of good possession on another.
Those moments proved costly as the Wanderers scored against the run of play moments later through Kalmar, who picked up the ball on the edge of the area and rammed the ball past Coe.
In trying to wrestle back the lead, Khalfallah beat his man then whipped a cross in, which was almost turned in by Brendan Hamill but just missed for a corner.
Besart Berisha was adamant his ensuing header from the set piece crossed the line before being cleared, but was waved away by the linesman.
It didn’t matter as Victory soon scored the winner with Berisha instrumental in the build up, picking up Barbarouses’ pass on the counter and forcing his way into the box – while he wasn’t able to beat Covic, he did tee up Finkler for the finish.
Coe was called upon one last time to preserve Victory’s lead late in the contest when Mark Bridge played in Kuzmanovski on his debut game, but his stinging shot was palmed away.
The game leaves the Wanderers winless after 14 rounds in the Hyundai A-league, heading into the Asian Cup break.
Western Sydney Wanders 1 (Nick Kalmar 55′) defeated by Melbourne Victory 2 (Valeri 27′, Finkler 80′) at Pirtek Stadium
Western Sydney Wanderers: 1. Ante Covic (GK), 2. Shannon Cole, 4. Topor-Stanley (C), 5. Brendan Hamill, 6. Antony Golec, 7. Labinot Haliti (38. Steve Kuzmanovski 87′) , 8. Mateo Poljak, 12. Nikita Rukavytsya, 15. Yianni Perkatis (23′ Jason Trifiro 61′), 19. Mark Bridge, 33. Nick Kalmar (16. Jason Sotirio 73′)
Unused Subs: 20 Dean Bouzanis (GK), 32. Daniel Alessi
Yellow Cards: Poljak 57′, Golec 58′
Red Cards: None
Melbourne Victory: 1. Nathan Coe (GK), 4. Nick Ansell, 6. Leigh Broxham, 7. Gui Finkler, 8. Besart Berisha (13. Andrew Nabbout 90′), 9. Kosta Barbarouses, 14. Fahid Ben Khalfallah, 18. Dylan Murnane (Daniel Georgievski 46′) 21. Carl Valeri, 22. Jesse Makarounas (16. Rashid Mahazi , 24. Scott Galloway
Unused Substitutes: 20. Lawrence Thomas, 11. Connor Pain
Yellow Cards: Mahazi 74′, Georgievski 86′
Red Cards: None