A-League Game Of The Round Preview: Wanderers Vs Victory

Fri 4 Jan 2019, 11:27am AEDT - Sportingbase

The Wanderers will have to overturn a horrible record against Melbourne Victory if they’re to creep into the top 6.

WESTERN SYDNEY WANDERERS v MELBOURNE VICTORY

The Red and Black have won just once in the club’s last 15 encounters with the reigning Hyundai A-League Champions and have lost the last three – including a 4-0 hammering earlier in the season.

Victory will arrive at ANZ Stadium teeming with the confidence they can replicate that result – Kevin Muscat’s side have played three matches against the Wanderers at the Sydney venue and have failed to concede a goal while scoring six times themselves.

It’s an intimidating record for Markus Babbel’s side, whose opponents are undefeated in their last eight Hyundai A-League fixtures.

They It came from behind to secure a 1-1 draw against Wellington Phoenix in its final outing of 2018, with Ola Toivonen scoring the equaliser.

Toivonen, 32, maintained his record of having scored or assisted in each of his Hyundai A-League appearances.

The star Swedish striker has scored five goals – equal with Keisuke Honda this season – and provided two assists in seven games.

The big news coming out of the Melbourne Victory is the hamstring injury to superstar Keisuke Honda. The Japanese international will miss at least a month which will test just how dependent the Victory were on their new import. Nick Ansell is also injured although the Wolf thinks that Kevin Muscat’s are still one of the better sides in the A-League even with those players out.

Some insights for the game are:

Melbourne Victory has won four of their last five A-League away matches.
The ‘Over 3.5 Goals’ market has hit in four of Western Sydney’s last five A-League night matches as an underdog.
The ‘Both Teams To Score’ market has hit in each of Melbourne Victory’s last three A-League matches.