It’s derby day in Melbourne as Western United FC welcome Victory to GMHBA Stadium on Sunday looking to snap their three-game losing streak.
Mark Rudan’s side made a good start to life in the Hyundai A-League – including a 3-2 win over Victory in Round 4 – but things have gone south of late.
Not only have United failed to win any of their last three games, they have also failed to find the net and are now at risk of dropping out of the top six for the first time this season.
Victory head into this clash off the back of their morale-boosting 1-0 win over Perth Glory last Friday night.
The victory eased a bit of the pressure on coach Marco Kurz who will be hoping his fit-again attacking trio of Robbie Kruse, Andrew Nabbout and Ola Toivonen can inspire them to back-to-back wins for the first time in 2019/20.
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Sunday, December 8 2019
Kick-off: 4.00pm AEDT
Venue: GMHBA Stadium
Broadcast: FOX Sports 505
Stream: MyFootball Live App, Kayo Sports
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Team news
Western United FC Squad: 1.Filip KURTO (gk), 2.Aaron CALVER, 3.Brendan HAMILL, 4.Andrew DURANTE, 5.Dylan PIERIAS, 6.Connor CHAPMAN, 8.Panagiotis KONE, 9.Apostolos STAMATELOPOULOS, 10.Scott MCDONALD, 11.Connor PAIN, 12.Dario JERTEC, 13.Ivan VUJICA, 14.Max BURGESS, 15.Jonathan ASPROPOTAMITIS, 18.Besart BERISHA, 19.Josh RISDON, 22.Ersan GULUM, 23.Alessandro DIAMANTI (c), 26.Kwabena APPIAH-KUBI, 30.Ryan SCOTT (gk)
**2-4 to be omitted**
Ins: 9.Apostolos STAMATELOPOULOS (promoted), 13.Ivan VUJICA (promoted), 15.Jonathan ASPROPOTAMITIS (promoted),
Outs: 27.Jerry SKOTADIS (not selected)
Unavailable: 20.James DELIANOV (GK) (knee – season)
Melbourne Victory squad: 2.Storm ROUX, 3.Corey BROWN, 4.James DONACHIE, 6.Leigh BROXHAM, 7.Kenny ATHIU, 8.Jakob POULSEN, 9.Andrew NABBOUT, 10.Robbie KRUSE, 11.Ola TOIVONEN (c), 13.Birkan KIRDAR, 16.Josh HOPE, 17.Elvis KAMSOBA, 18.Migjen BASHA, 19.Ben CARRIGAN, 20.Lawrence THOMAS (gk), 21.Adama TRAORE, 22.Kristijan DOBRAS, 24.Anthony LESIOTIS, 25.Brandon LAUTON, 50.Brendan WHITE (gk)
**2-4 to be omitted**
Ins: 2.Storm ROUX (promoted), 13.Birkan KIRDAR (promoted), 22.Kristijan DOBRAS (promoted), 25.Brandon LAUTON (promoted)
Outs: Nil
Unavailable: 1.Matt ACTON (shoulder), 5.Tim HOOGLAND (quad), 14.Thomas DENG (groin)
Did you know?
- None of the last nine all-Victorian games in the Hyundai A-League have been won by the home team on the day (D3, L6).
- Western United FC have lost their last three A-League games on the bounce and have been kept goalless in each of those defeats.
- Melbourne Victory (48%) are the only team to have won less than half of their total tackle attempts this Hyundai A-League campaign
