It doesn’t get much bigger than this: A Big Blue on Australia Day to determine who will claim outright second on the Hyundai A-League ladder between Sydney FC and Melbourne Victory.
Kevin Muscat’s men have had the wood over the Sky Blues of late, winning the past two encounters, including that infamous 3-2 Semi-Final victory where Terry Antonis ran more than 50 metres on his way to an extra-time winner.
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The dominance extends to a broader outlook too, with Victory enjoying five wins in the last 11 against Sydney FC, while the Sky Blues have won only three.
Despite this, Sydney FC head into the Big Blue with some confidence of their own, having amassed 12 points from their last five games and leapfrogging Victory in that time.
Sydney’s 1-0 win against Wellington Phoenix in Round 15, where they dug deep and weathered Phoenix’s attacks, proved why they are still a fair shout of grabbing their third consecutive Hyundai A-League Premiership.
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With Siem De Jong and Anthony Caceres sustaining injuries in that game, it seems Corica will be forced to test the depth of his squad — though, with the Asian Champions League beginning on March 6, he will no doubt hope they return in time to fight on two fronts.
Last time these two met, goals to Ola Toivonen and Keisuke Honda guided Victory to a 2-1 win at Jubilee Oval. Honda is now absent, while Sydney lost only once during the Summer of Heroes.
So the stage is set for a thrilling Big Blue: A win for either side will see them cement second spot, while anything less will deal a serious psychological blow in the run to the finals.
Key Opta stats
- Melbourne Victory have neither kept nor conceded a clean sheet in any of their last 11Hyundai A-League games at AAMI Park; however, they’ve picked up competition points from all but one of those fixtures (W7, D3, L1).
- Sydney FC have won three of their last four Hyundai A-League games played on Australia Day (January 26th), including their last two on the bounce.
- The Sky Blues have scored seven goals in the 15-minute period immediately after half-time this season, more than any other team in the competition.
Ins and outs
Melbourne Victory squad: 1.Matt ACTON (GK), 2.Storm ROUX, 3.Corey BROWN, 6.Leigh BROXHAM, 7.Kenny ATHIU, 8.Terry ANTONIS, 9.Kosta BARBAROUSES, 10.James TROISI, 11.Ola TOIVONEN, 13.Birkan KIRDAR, 14.Tommy DENG, 15.Raul BAENA, 16.Josh HOPE, 19.Rahmat AKBARI, 20.Lawrence THOMAS (GK), 21.Carl VALERI (C), 24.Elvis KAMSOBA, 25.Anthony LESIOTIS **two to be omitted**
Ins: 13. Birkan KIRDAR (promoted) 25. Anthony LESIOTIS (promoted)
Outs: Nil
Unavailable: Jai INGHAM (quad – TBC), Keisuke HONDA (Hamstring – 1 week), Nick ANSELL (Hamstring – TBC), Georg NIEDERMEIER (Calf – TBC)
Sydney FC squad: 1.Andrew REDMAYNE (gk), 2.Aaron CALVER, 3.Ben WARLAND, 4.Alex WILKINSON, 6.Josh BRILLANTE, 7.Michael ZULLO, 8.Paulo RETRE, 9.Adam LE FONDRE, 10.Milos NINKOVIC, 11.Daniel DE SILVA, 13.Brandon O’NEILL, 14.Alex BROSQUE (c), 20.Alex CISAK (gk), 21.Charles LOKOLI-NGOY, 24.Cam DEVLIN, 25. Joel KING, 31.Luke IVANOVIC **one to be omitted**
Ins: 21.Charles LOKOLI-NGOY (promoted), 24.Cam DEVLIN (promoted), 25. Joel KING (promoted)
Outs: 17.Anthony CACERES (calf – awaiting scans), 22.Siem DE JONG (knee – awaiting scans)
Unavailable: 5.Jop van der LINDEN (hamstring – 1 week), 12.Trent BUHAGIAR (ACL – indefinite), 18.Jacob TRATT (groin – 2 weeks), 19.Chris ZUVELA (knee – indefinite), 23.Rhyan GRANT (International Duty)
How to watch
Tune in to FOX SPORTS 505 to watch all the action unfold from 7:50pm (AEDT). You can also watch the game live and free on 10 Bold and 10 play. Or, you can stream the match on the MyFootball Live App, which is live, fast and data-free for Telstra mobile customers.
Tickets
CLICK HERE to purchase your tickets and see whether Melbourne Victory can leapfrog Sydney FC into second place.
Tipping
