On Friday, February 8th, the 18th round of A-League will see Brisbane Roar hosting Sydney FC at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane in their 1st encounter this season.
Brisbane Roar are currently sitting at the 9th spot in the league with a dismissal record of 1-6-10. In other words, Brisbane Roar have not won a match since November 24th 2018, when they managed to defeat Melbourne City 2:0. Ever since the win, Brisbane Roar lost 9 games and drew 3. Brisbane is coming into their next match after suffering a 4:3 defeat against Adelaide United. In the mentioned match Adelaide United played without 1 player since 9th minute when Ilso received a red card. Soon after, Brisbane Roar scored a goal (19th minute) to which they added 2 more in 38th and 43rd minute. Adelaide managed to respond with a goal of their own before the 1st half ended (45’+2), which meant the teams went into the second half 2 goals apart (1:3). In the 2nd half, Brisbane made a terrible mistake when Ingham received his 2nd yellow card. Only 6 minutes later Young joined him in the stands as he as well received a red card. This ultimately meant Brisbane were with only 9 players, while Adelaide had 10. But Brisbane were 2 goals up with only 26 minutes to go, which should be enough right? Well… it was not. Adelaide scored their 2nd goal in 67th minute to which they added another one in 75th, which tied the match at 3:3. If that was not enough Adelaide player Mileusnic find his way to the Brisbane net in the 7th minute of added time and scored a game-winning goal. The match ended with a final score of 4:3 for Adelaide, who showed a spectacular comeback, while Brisbane Roar lost a sure match due to 2 red cards they received and to be fair a poor performance overall.
The away side on Friday, Sydney FC have dropped from the 1st spot in the league and are now 3rd with an overall record of 11-2-4 and 35 points. At the moment they are trailing 5 points behind the league leaders Perth Glory, who will face a tough opponent Melbourne Victory on February 10th, which means Sydney can catch up to the top 2 teams in the league with a win against Brisbane Roar. Looking at Sydney FC recent matches they have won 4 out of 5, only losing to Melbourne Victory on January 26th (2:1). They are coming into this match after a 2:0 win against Melbourne City. In away games, Sydney holds a respectable 5-2-2 record with 3-1-1 in last 5 games.
After a disappointing result against Adelaide United, Brisbane Roar will look for a chance to bounce back against Sydney FC, however, it will be far from an easy task. The last time these two sides met, which was on January 8th 2018, Sydney FC won by 3 goals (0:3), this time we could be looking at the same result simply because Brisbane are not in a good position. With their recent poor performances, they have dropped to the 9th place in the league where they sit with only 3 points. Sydney FC on the other side won 8 out of their last 10 games and are deservingly at the 3rd spot in the league. While they lost 2 of the most important matches; against Perth Glory and Melbourne Victory, they will still chase the top 2 teams and a win here would see them climbing to the 2nd spot only if Perth Glory defeats Melbourne Victory. All in all, this is a match Sydney FC needs to win if they wish to catch up to Victory and Glory and with opponents like Brisbane Roar this will be easily achieved. Expect a dominant performance from Sydney FC on Friday and a match that will end with a similar result to the one we saw on January 8th 2018.
Prediction: Sydney FC -1.00 Asian Handicap
Odds: 2.11 Pinnacle, SBOBET
