The last match of the 5th round in A-League will take place at NIB Stadium, where Perth Glory hosts Central Coast Mariners.
Perth Glory climbed to the 1st spot in the A-League after Sydney FC failed to win against Newcastle Jets in the 4th round of the season. Up until now, Perth has an overall record of 3-1-0, which means they are one of the 2 teams who have not yet tasted a defeat this season. In their most recent match against Adelaide, Perth Glory won by 2 goals, which was their 3rd win in a row, after drawing their first match of the season against WS Wanderers (1:1). Looking closely at the match against Adelaide United, we did not see a goal in the first half, despite a total of 11 goal attempts from the teams. Perth Glory strangely had only 36% of the ball in the 1st half and despite having 4 goal attempts had no shots on goal. The second half saw Perth Glory dominating with 9 goal attempts and 5 shots on goal, despite having 42% possession. On the other side, Adelaide did not manage to shot on goal with 58% possession. With Perth using their possession better, they managed to score 2 goals in 73′ and 90′ which saw Adelaide suffering their first defeat of the season. Final score: 0:2.
The visiting side, Central Coast Mariners are not fairing too well this season. With an overall record of 0-2-4, they are the only team that has not yet won a match. In their last 4 matches, they have drawn the opening 2 against Brisbane Roar (1:1) and Melbourne City (1:1) but lost the last 2 matches against Adelaide United (0:3) and Melbourne Victory (4:1). Looking at their last match against Melbourne Victory, Mariners suffered a high defeat. The match did not look good for them since the 1st half when Victory scored 2 goals in 30′ and 35′. At this point, Mariners were 2 goals behind, but right before the 1st half ended another goal was scored which set them back by 3 goals prior to the 2nd half. The 2nd half looked much more promising for Mariners who managed to score a goal, however, it was not nearly enough to catch up with Melbourne who scored their 4th goal in 90’+4. Final score: 4:1.
Mariners are clearly in a bad spot right now and with their terrible performance against Melbourne Victory, their morale is at its lowest. In fact, they performed just as bad against Adelaide, where they were defeated (0:3).On the other side, Perth is putting up great results and with their striker Keogh in an excellent form, we expect this match to end much like the one between Melbourne Victory and Mariners. Perth is simply in a better form and has better players at their disposal for this match to even be considered close. I can safely say Glory will win this one with at least 2 goals, taking into consideration Keogh’s form and with Central Coast letting in 7 goals in the past 2 games.
Prediction: Perth Glory -1.50 Asian Handicap
Odds: 2.23 SBOBET
