Defending champions Sydney FC will seek a third consecutive A-League win on Saturday, as they welcome rivals Melbourne City to the Leichhardt Oval.
The visitors arrive just three points off the top of the table - still with two games in hand on the leaders - and hope to gain a measure of revenge for their Grand Final defeat to the hosts last August.
Match preview
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After picking up an underwhelming single point from their final two games of March, Sydney FC recorded a dominant 3-0 victory over basement side Melbourne Victory to start this month and followed up with another win in midweek.
The Sky Blues became the first club to record 200 wins in the A-League on Wednesday, as they edged to a 1-0 home win over Perth Glory thanks to Kiwi striker Kosta Barbarouses slipping a shot under visiting goalkeeper Liam Reddy early in the second half.
The match ended in bizarre circumstances, with some of the lights going out as lightning strikes occurred nearby. Under A-League rules, though, the result stood - despite the game prematurely concluding a minute before full time.
Sydney have now lost just one of their last six matches, having previously struggled to replicate last year's exceptional form at the start of the current campaign. The reigning champions sit fourth in the tightly-packed standings, but must surely unlock their goalscoring potential if they are to keep pace with the sides above them.
Nonetheless, head coach Steve Corica has based his approach this term on keeping the back door shut and no other side has conceded as few as the 13 that his Sydney team have shipped so far this season. That is just as well, because this weekend's visitors are the league's highest scorers, despite having played fewer games than most of the other top sides.
Until a setback on Saturday, Melbourne City had won six games in a row - the last five of which were by a margin of at least two goals. Away at mid-table Western United though, Patrick Kisnorbo's men fell to an unexpected 2-1 defeat and missed out on the opportunity to inch closer to Central Coast Mariners at the top.
City then travelled to the Sky Stadium on Monday, to meet Wellington Phoenix, and promptly returned to winning ways with a thrilling 3-2 victory, secured only in the 83rd minute by substitute Marco Tilio's strike.
In fact, it was Corica's substitutions which effectively decided a competitive affair, as not only did Tilio head home the winner, but young Stefan Colakovski provided some decisive interventions off the bench.
That bounce-back success lifted the Victorian outfit to within three points of top spot with two games in hand, so confidence will be high as they now face a serious test of their credentials in New South Wales.
Finding the net has not proved a problem for the City Group-owned side, as after notching his team's second goal last time out, in-form Australia striker Jamie Maclaren has directly contributed to at least one goal in each of his last nine appearances.
With the former Hibernian and Darmstadt forward having netted 13 times in 14 games so far, Sydney's well-drilled defence will certainly have to be on their toes to keep him at bay on Saturday.
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Team News
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Sydney's Adam Pavlesic was involved in a gruesome clash of heads in the AFC Champions League back in December and remains out of action. Trent Buhagiar (knee) and Christopher Zuvela (also knee) are injured too and will be unavailable on Saturday.
Experienced left-back Michael Zullo has a calf problem, so Joel King should continue to deputise in Steve Corica's back four.
In midweek, youngsters Jordi Swibel and Callum Talbot were promoted to an otherwise unchanged squad by the former Wolverhampton Wanderers midfielder and could feature from the bench. Meanwhile, veteran striker Bobo will lead the line alongside midweek match-winner Kosta Barbarouses, having scored twice in his last four games.
Melbourne City midfielder Aiden O'Neill remains sidelined with a back injury and has not featured for the visitors since January, while defender Nathaniel Atkinson suffered a high-grade hamstring injury in the first half of Monday's game, which will keep him sidelined for at least the next two months. Full-back Scott Galloway should therefore step into the first XI.
Rostyn Griffiths has been one of City's most reliable performers so far and has settled back into a midfield role after being deployed at centre-back for much of the season, so will again join Florin Berenguer and Connor Metcalfe in the engine room.
Sydney FC possible starting lineup:
Redmayne; King, McGowan, Wilkinson, Grant; Brattan, Baumjohann, Ninkovic, Retre; Barbarouses, Bobo
Melbourne City possible starting lineup:
Glover; Garuccio, Good, Reis, Galloway; Griffiths, Metcalfe, Berenguer; Noone, Nabbout, Maclaren
We say: Sydney FC 1-1 Melbourne City
Having turned over the Sky Blues at AAMI Park earlier in the season, City are certainly in with a chance of pulling off another success on Saturday, with the visitors' scoring power potentially proving enough to breach Sydney's watertight defence.
The hosts, however, have returned to form in recent weeks and can take another useful point against one of their key rivals this season.
Top tip
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 45.16%. A win for Sydney FC had a probability of 30.42% and a draw had a probability of 24.4%.
The most likely scoreline for a Melbourne City win was 1-2 with a probability of 9.22%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-1 (8.92%) and 0-2 (7.19%). The likeliest Sydney FC win was 2-1 (7.33%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.43%). The actual scoreline of 1-1 was predicted with an 11.4% likelihood.
