Melbourne Victory and Brisbane Roar meet in a winner-takes-all Hyundai A-League Semi Final on Sunday in the Victorian capital. What can we learn from their three previous meetings this season?
Banter ramps up for Victory, Roar semi final
STATS SUGGEST IT’S INCREDIBLY EVEN
Here are some of the key stats across the three games, showing just how even the contests have been.
Goals
Victory: 4
Roar: 4
Attempts on goal
Victory: 33
Roar: 32
Passes
Victory: 1318
Roar: 1309
Yellow cards
Victory: 7
Roar: 7
Red cards
Victory: 1
Roar: 1
NEVER WRITE ROAR OFF!
We should know this by now.
Brisbane and Victory met in the very first game of the 2016/17 Hyundai A-League season at Suncorp Stadium.
After a goal-less 66 minutes, Matt McKay was sent off for a second yellow card.
Victory new-boy Mitch Austin looked to have sealed all three points for the visitors before Luke DeVere rescued his side a point with practically the last kick of the match.
See the game and read the report here
DON’T GIVE VICTORY A HEADSTART
In round 15 at AAMI Park, it was Victory this time who were reduced to ten men.
Besart Berisha was given his marching orders after an altercation with Luke DeVere 15 minutes into the second half.
The red card was later rescinded, but Victory still had to play one-third of the match with ten men.
All the scoring in this five-goal thriller came in the first half.
The hosts raced to a 3-0 lead inside 28 minutes with James Troisi, Marco Rojas and Berisha all scoring.
Dimi Petratos smashed in a thirty-yard free-kick for one of the goals of the season to pull one back for Roar.
Then Victory’s former Brisbane defender James Donachie turned a cross into his own net to further reduce the deficit.
See the game and read the report here
ONE MAGIC MOMENT COULD SEAL IT
A month ago in Brisbane, a tense encounter at Suncorp was settled by a moment of inspiration.
With the scores locked at 0-0, Jamie Maclaren stole between two Victory defenders before unleashing a vicious dipping volley over a helpless Lawrence Thomas.
See the game and read the report here
Victory were without star attacking trio Besart Berisha, Marco Rojas and James Troisi through international duty, and were unable to fashion an equaliser.
