Melbourne Victory denied Auckland a shot at an A-League Men fairytale after turning around a one-goal deficit with a 2-0 win in the second leg of their semi-final to set up a title decider against cross-town rivals Melbourne City.

City set up a mouth-watering Melbourne derby grand final after beating Western United later on Saturday, when a 1-1 draw at AAMI Park saw them progress 4-1 on aggregate.

Zinedine Machach and Bruno Fornaroli were the heroes for Victory as the Black Knights lost for just the second time at Go Media Stadium this season, and fell behind 2-1 on aggregate to end the premiers’ hopes of clinching a historic double.

It took a goalline clearance from Victory defender Josh Rawlins deep into the seven minutes of added time, as well as an earlier contentious call to rule out a Logan Rogerson header, for the visitors to book a place in their second successive decider. Victory will face Melbourne City after they beat Western United 4-1 on aggregate in their semi-final with an Aziz Behich goal all but settling the tie after 20 minutes before Noah Botic pulled one back in the second half.

Machach opened the scoring with a speculative shot from long range that was heading well wide of the far post before a desperate lunge from Black Knights defender Nando Pijnaker intervened. Auckland shotstopper Alex Paulsen was wrong footed as the wicked deflection dribbled into the bottom corner of his goal to level the tie in the 55th minute.

With the wind in their sails, Victory pressed to claim the advantage and soon found an aggregate lead through combative frontman Fornaroli. The 37-year-old drew on his vast experience and guile to creep out of an offside position and into vacant space between Black Knights defenders with enough time to swivel and fire into the bottom left of the net just five minutes after Machach had scored.

Auckland thought they had levelled the tie at two-all on aggregate when first leg goalscorer Rogerson headed home from the edge of the goalline in the 69th minute. But while Guillermo May had pounced on the ball just before it rolled out for a goal kick and his cross sailed over Victory keeper Jack Duncan to Rogerson at the back post, the linesman was quick to raise a flag.

Auckland coach Steve Corica was still fuming after the final whistle as replays were deemed not clear enough to show that May’s lob had stayed in play. “I think we all saw the replay, the ball’s in play,” Corica said. “So, for me, the referee’s made a bad decision. The linesman has, and so has the VAR, whoever’s in charge up there, because that would have obviously helped us get back into the game.”

Duncan almost gifted the Black Knights a crucial goal in the 98th minute when fumbling a high ball that allowed Pijnaker a shot from close range. But with Rawlins perfectly placed on the line to keep the ball out of the net, the hosts were left to rue missed opportunities late in the first leg as much as the second while licking their wounds after a memorable debut season.

But Victory’s win could have come at a cost with emerging attacker Nishan Velupillay in doubt after going to ground on the cusp of half-time under little contact from Black Knights midfielder Marlee Francois. Machach quickly brought down Francois to spark a melee involving all 22 players on the pitch other than Velupillay who was left sitting metres away and clutching his lower leg. The 24-year-old was subbed off at the break and only returned for the second half on crutches to put him in doubt for the grand final next Saturday night as well as the Socceroos’ critical World Cup qualifiers in June.

The triumph was Melbourne’s first over Auckland after failing to score in their three earlier clashes and leaves coach Arthur Diles’s side within touching distance of breaking a seven-year championship drought despite losing coach Patrick Kisnorbo midway through the season. City are now all that is standing in Victory’s way in a first Melbourne derby grand final.