Adelaide United will be looking to continue their unbeaten, midseason resurgence as they travel to Melbourne to take on the Victory at AAMI Park.
Victory enter the match off the back of consecutive draws, including the exhilarating Melbourne derby which finished 2-2 amid controversy on and off the pitch. Goals to Fahid Ben Khalfallah and Gui Finkler cancelled out Bruno Fornaroli’s brace in what was one of the best games played all season.
This match is Victory’s last before their schedule becomes a lot busier with their first Asian Champions League group stage match against Shanghai SIPG on Wednesday night.
The Reds will be hoping they can extend their unbeaten run to 12 games in the league after their 3-2 win over the Central Coast Mariners last round saw them jump up to third on the A-League table. Isaias, Bruce Djite and Stefan Mauk all found the back of the net in a brilliant come back which saw Fabio Ferreira and Josh Bingham’s efforts count for little.
Although they will be disappointed they lost their ACL qualifier, the Reds can now focus solely on their league campaign and continue their ascent up the ladder in search of that elusive first championship.
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Key Battle – Gui Finkler vs Isaias
Victory’s Brazillian playmaker has always been an integral part of this Melbourne Victory team, but following his omission from the club’s ACL squad, Finkler will be hoping to show coach Kevin Muscat exactly what the team will be missing once the competition gets underway on Wednesday night.
Isaias has arguably been the quiet achiever amongst the Reds’ imports. While he doesn’t grab the headlines like Marcelo Carrusca or Sergio Cirio, he has been consistently industrious in the middle of the park for Adelaide. He is second in the league for total passes and is an excellent distributor of the ball.
While they play different roles their success is crucial to the overall performance of the team. Finkler needs to return to his creative best, setting up chances and providing assists for those in front of him and Isaias needs to be running the show in the midfield to ensure Adelaide continue their good form.
Team News
For the Victory, Kosta Barbarouses will be unavailable for selection after accruing his fifth yellow card of the season in the derby. Either Connor Pain or Archie Thompson will replace him in the starting XI. It will be interesting to see who Kevin Muscat plays at left back with Scott Galloway filling the position for the past two weeks ahead of Daniel Georgievski.
Adelaide will be without Iacopo La Rocca after the FFA’s independent disciplinary committee upheld his three week suspension for violent conduct against Sydney FC’s Matt Simon in round 18. However, the Reds will welcome back Tarek Elrich following his one week suspension for yellow card accruement.
Head to Head
Victory hold the advantage in this fixture winning 19 of the 38 games played to Adelaide’s 10. There have also been nine draws.
Previous Meeting
The last time these sides met is also the last time Guillermo Amor’s men lost a match in the league. Victory’s 2-1 win at Etihad Stadium saw goals to Besart Berisha, Oliver Bozanic and Marcelo Carrusca.
Prediction
A Victory win means they continue their dominance over the Reds. An Adelaide win means they continue their stunning form in the league. While Victory have history on their side – they haven’t lost to Adelaide in eight games in the league and have won 14 of their last 18 home matches against the Reds with only one loss and three draws – Adelaide have consistency and form behind them.
Adelaide have been unstoppable for almost three months now and Victory have managed to find some results without putting in regular, 90 minute performances.
These matches are always entertaining and usually fiery with both sides finding the back of the net with some frequency in recent weeks. This, coupled with Victory’s good run at home and United’s good run overall should make it hard to split the teams.
Melbourne Victory 2 Adelaide United 2
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