Jeff Hopkins' side sit on top of the ladder after Elise Kellond-Knight's own goal and Emily Gielnik's breakaway finish at AAMI Park on Friday night.

Despite City's wealth of internationals, Victory looked the more polished outfit and remarkably so after a slice of pre-match drama.

Traffic delayed the arrival of Matildas defender Laura Alleway and youth international Kyra Cooney-Cross to just minutes before kick-off.

Alleway landed in the nick of time, warming up by herself and being thrust into action but Cooney-Cross had to watch from the stands.

"We had probably the worst preparation we've had all season with the traffic," Hopkins said.

"It's where the girls are at the moment with their spirit. They didn't let anything affect them."

Thankfully for Cooney-Cross, her side and replacement midfielder MelindaJ Barbieri performed admirably in the defeat of the three-time champions.

Christine Nairn pulled the strings in midfield, while Victory's entire back four and goalkeeper Casey Dumont were superb.

The contest was on from the first whistle but it took almost half an hour before the first serious chance.

City's Yukari Kinga should have scored at the back post from Tameka Butt's fine cross but headed over.

Victory first warmed into the contest and then made them pay.

Gielnik might have added to her goal scored on Matildas duty on Tuesday in Australia's 5-0 rout of Chile but got her outside-of-the-boot shot was off target.

Victory's pressure told on 31 minutes when Nairn's superb cross had Kellond-Knight in all sorts.

Under pressure from Natasha Dowie, the veteran headed past her Matildas' teammate Lydia Williams in goal to give Victory a worthy lead.

After the break, Dumont pulled off a fingertip save to deny Butt's strike from City's best move of the night.

As City pushed women forward for an equaliser, Victory caught them cold.

Dowie found Gielnik rampaging down the right, who ran clear and delivered a textbook finish on 65 minutes to seal the contest.

The loss was City coach Rado Vidosic's second in three matches as the expansion club slumped to their worst start since joining the competition.

"I thought we controlled the game quite a lot to be honest," he said.

"But we were missing five players from our starting eleven ... I don't think any W-League team missing three defenders would be able to compete the way we did."

Australian Associated Press