Staring down the barrel of their worst defeat in almost five years, the Sky Blues dominated the final 20 minutes of Tuesday night's clash at AAMI Park with goals to substitutes Patrick Wood and Milos Ninkovic.

They had chances in the dying moments to equalise at three-all, but City held on for their third victory of the season to release pressure on new coach Patrick Kisnorbo.

Corica admitted the reigning champions were outplayed for most of the grand final rematch but he was filthy with the video assistant referee.

"In the end, we probably could've got a point because I'm not sure what VAR saw," Corica said.

"I know what I saw in the dying minutes - it was handball and we probably could have stolen a point.

"I'm just not sure about the decision they made at the end."

Corica's comments come on the back of VAR controversy last Friday night following Adelaide United's 3-2 win against Central Coast, with all of the Reds' goals coming from penalties.

City talisman Jamie Maclaren, who starred with two goals against Sydney FC, criticised the VAR in an interview with ABC radio last weekend, saying it was "killing our game".

While Corica was upset with the non-call on Tuesday, he said his team got what they deserve for producing a lacklustre first-half.

City came out full of running after a 16-day break, while the Sky Blues were backing up from Saturday's scoreless draw against Brisbane.

"It was pretty much all our boys who looked sluggish in the first half," Corica said.

"We want to play games and we have to deal with this, there's going to be more times that we have to turn around after two days."

Australian Associated Press