Champions Melbourne City square off against Brisbane Roar on Tuesday with the opportunity to strengthen their grip of first place in the A-League standings.
While the home side sit down in sixth position, their game in hand means that they still have hopes of claiming second spot before the end of the regular campaign.
Match preview
Despite their dominance at the top of the table, Melbourne City have sometimes been unconvincing when it has come to wrapping up the A-League trophy.
Nevertheless, despite just two clean sheets being recorded in nine matches, their victory over Central Coast Mariners has kept them seven points clear of their rivals.
While Jamie Maclaren failed to add to his 25 goals for the season, veteran English midfielder Craig Noone ended his own nine-game wait to net the decisive strike.
Patrick Kisnorbo will now be turning his attention to the A-League Finals, and he will want to extend City's current run of 10 fixtures without defeat.
With games against the bottom two to follow this encounter, no-one will back against them if they can record another positive result against their next opponents.
Roar have prevailed in just one of their most recent four fixtures, a run which has included a 3-2 defeat in the reverse fixture against Melbourne City.
However, Friday's 2-1 triumph over Newcastle Jets has kept Roar's fate in their own hands as they bid to confirm a top-six spot as soon as possible.
Jay O'Shea endured a game that he will always remember, the former Chesterfield star putting through his own net before scoring the winning goal at the other end.
Although three of Roar's concluding fixtures are at home, half of those matches will be played against the current top two.
- D
- W
- L
- D
- L
- W
- W
- W
- W
- W
- D
- W
Team News
Teenager Jordan Courtney-Perkins may be handed just his second start of the season after replacing Macauley Gillesphey at half time of the last match.
Barring any other fitness concerns, Warren Moon could opt against making any further changes to his Roar starting lineup.
Kisnorbo will give consideration to resting a number of key players ahead of the A-League Finals next month.
Conor Metcalfe and Maclaren could drop down to the substitutes' bench after featuring in each of City's 23 matches.
Florin Berenguer and Stefan Colakovski are alternatives to the pair in midfield and attack respectively.
Brisbane Roar possible starting lineup:
Young; Neville, Aldred, Courtney-Perkins, Brown; Trewin, O'Shea, Akbari, Danzaki; Parsons, Wenzel-Halls
Melbourne City possible starting lineup:
Glover; Galloway, Reis, Good, Jamieson; Luna, O'Neill, Berenguer; Tilio, Colakovski, Noone
We say: Brisbane Roar 1-3 Melbourne City
Roar know that a couple of positive results could make all the difference as they bid to make the A-League Finals. However, playing with minimal pressure on their shoulders, we expect the visitors to produce another strong performance on their travels to claim all three points.
Top tip
Darren Plant
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Melbourne City win with a probability of 45.28%. A win for Brisbane Roar had a probability of 30.89% and a draw had a probability of 23.8%.
The most likely scoreline for a Melbourne City win was 1-2 with a probability of 9.21%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-1 (8.14%) and 0-2 (6.83%). The likeliest Brisbane Roar win was 2-1 (7.4%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (10.97%). The actual scoreline of 3-0 was predicted with a 2% likelihood.
