Flashback: Bentleigh Greens knock out Wellington on Rudan debut
Six years before Wellington Phoenix were defeated 1-0 by South Melbourne in the 2024 Round of 32, Bentleigh Greens pulled off a stunning 1-0 upset of their own against the Nix.
The Victorian NPL side shocked the Phoenix as Marco Jankovic, son of former Real Madrid defender Milan Jankovic, scored after 23 minutes.
It was just the sixth time a Member Federation club had beaten a side from the A-League Men in the competition - beginning Mark Rudan's tenure at Wellington Phoenix on a tough note.
Bentleigh's road to the Round of 32
Bentleigh joined the Preliminary Rounds at the fourth round stage defeating Box Hill United 4-0.
They would then go on to defeat St Kilda Celts with a 3-2 win before beating Goulburn Valley Suns 3-1.
The Greens would then brush aside Kingston City 4-0 to earn a spot in the draw and eventually a date with Wellington Phoenix in the Round of 32.
Having qualified for the Australia Cup, Bentleigh would go on to win Football Victoria's Dockerty Cup defeating Port Melbourne 5-1 in the Semi Final, and then downing Heidelberg United 2-0 in the Final.
The Round of 32 win was Bentleigh’s first win over A-Leagues opposition after losing their previous three attempts to Perth Glory in 2014 (3-0), Melbourne Victory in 2016 (2-0) and Western Sydney Wanderers in 2017 (4-0).
A hero's moment finally arrives
Jankovic had previously explained that he had always struggled to step out of the shadow of his famous father. But he certainly did on that famous night at Kingston Heath Complex.
Velibor Mitrovic delivered an expert in-swinging corner from the left into the 6-yard box where Jankovic judged it's trajectory perfectly allowing a Phoenix player to jump ahead of him to try and clear.
That left rangy centre half unchallenged for a forceful header leaving Wellington keeper Filip Kurto rooted to the spot as the Greens wheeled away in celebration.
“For me, it was always a kind of personal mental battle to get over it and focus on myself," Jankovic said in 2018.
“To play for probably the biggest club in the world is something that you think ‘why am I not like that? Why aren’t I that good enough?’”
“I think if you’re not striving to be better or play at the highest level you’re doing something wrong.
“I’ve always had that attitude where I want to be playing at the highest level possible that’s why I train so hard and work so hard personally, to try and get myself ready for that level."
Bentleigh down to 10
Ten minutes after conceding, Wellington Phoenix were offered a chance back into the match when James Kelly was booked for a challenge on Polish midfielder Michał Kopczyński.
It was a second bookable offence after a ninth minute yellow that had referee Adam Kersey reaching to his pocket for a red card.
Despite the Nix' one man advantage, Bentleigh's 10 men dug in and held on to record a memorable victory to spoil Mark Rudan's opening game in charge of Wellington.
An A-League goalkeeper burst onto the scene
The match also thrust current Newcastle Jets goalkeeper Ryan Scott into the limelight as well.
The celebrations were wild in the Bentleigh sheds but they had to be curtailed slightly for Scott because he was an apprentice bricklayer at the time and had to be up at 5:30am the next morning for work.
“We were very confident, and that’s no disrespect to Wellington - obviously that’s taking into consideration where they are in their pre-season," he said after the match.
“We’re well into our season so we’re very organised and we know how each other plays and the structures and formations that we wanted to look at before the game.
"I think we controlled the game even when we didn’t have the ball, we were so compact that we only let them play a certain way and it clearly wasn’t working."
What happened after
Bentleigh travelled to Newcastle to play Broadmeadow Magic in the Round of 16 where they powered to a 4-0 win on the back of a Chris Lucas hat-trick.
After a goalless first half, Lucas scored two quick-fire goals in the space of 5 minutes, completing his hat-trick with a penalty on 71 minutes.
Tyson Holmes netted a fourth with a well-taken goal in the 86th minute.
An 87th minute winner was needed against Heidelberg United in the Quarter Finals courtesy of Jacob Alexander's cut inside and classy, curling finish into the bottom right corner, sending Bentleigh to the Semi Finals.
It was there the fairytale run would end as the eventual winners Adelaide United scored a goal in each half through Ben Halloran and Jordan Elsey to advance to a second straight Final against Sydney FC.
