The last match of the 18th round in A-League will take place at AAMI Park in Melbourne, where Melbourne VIctory host Perth Glory in their 2nd H2H match of the season, with the first ending in Perth Glory’s favour (2:3).
Melbourne Victory are currently 2nd in the A-League with an overall record of 11-3-3 and 36 points, which means they are 4 points behind the league leaders Perth Glory. Ultimately a win here would see them reducing the gap to only 1 point, but a defeat would further increase the gap. Melbourne Victory have got some great results behind them (at least on the paper), only losing 1 match out of their last 15. The only team that managed to defeat them in the span of the last 15 games were Adelaide United on January 9th 2018, which means Victory are undefeated in the last 5 games. Looking at the last match Melbourne Victory played, they somewhat struggled against Central Coast Mariners. They did, in the end, manage to win with a late goal in 88th minute, but their performance was far from good. The match ended 2:3 for Melbourne Victory, but here I must mention 1 of the goals they “scored” was an auto goal from Mariners player Kennedy. All in all, it was not a promising result, especially when we take into consideration Mariners are the worst team in the league, while Victory are 2nd.
Perth Glory, current league leaders have got an important match in front of them. A win would mean they would increase their lead in the league to 7 points, however, a defeat could result in them losing the top spot if they make another mistake in the upcoming matches. With an overall record of 12-4-1, Perth is the only team in the league who have not lost more than once. The only team that bested them was Sydney FC on December 21st 2018, which means Perth Glory are undefeated in the last 8 games (6-2-0). In the most recent match, Perth Glory played against Wellington Phoenix, who are as of now 6th in the league with an overall record of 7-6-5. In the mentioned match Perth Glory were the superior team who managed to use their possession much better compared to their opponents. With 2 goals in the 1st half and 1 only 10 minutes into the 2nd half Glory sunk Phoenix ship and their hopes to win. The match ended with a final score of 3:0 which is a fair representation of how the two sides performed.
As I have mentioned, I am not satisfied with Melbourne Victory performance against Central Coast Mariners in their recent match. The fact that Mariners managed to score 2 goals against Victory is worrying especially as they will face off against Perth Glory, who have got a potent attack. While it is true Melbourne Victory has scored the most goals than any other team in the last 5 games (15 goals), they have faced relatively bad teams. Victory scored 5 goals against Brisbane Roar, 3 again Phoenix and 3 against Mariners. I’m not saying Victory are a bad team but after a disappointing result against the last team in the league, I am simply not convinced they are ready to face off against Perth Glory who are “on fire”, in a good way.
Prediction: Perth Glory +0.25 Asian Handicap
