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Melbourne Victory have added another win to their ledger, surviving a late charge from Adelaide United to win 2-1.
» Click here to read the full match report
Final score
Melbourne Victory 2
Adelaide United 1
Melbourne Victory will start strong favourites against an Adelaide United team still with a mathematical chance of making the A-League finals. Join The Roar for live scores and commentary from 7:50pm (AEDT).
A commanding 3-nil win over the Central Coast Mariners away from home leaves the Victory well entrenched inside the top two.
Crucially, they remain in the box seat to secure a home preliminary final – a priceless advantage in big games.
However, Melbourne can ill-afford to look too far ahead when they take on an Adelaide team coming off a good win over the Newcastle Jets last week.
Despite playing poorly once again in the Asian Champions League, Adelaide are still in with a shot of making the A-League finals, provided they win all their remaining games starting tonight.
On form though, the Victory possess an important advantage and are difficult to tip against at home. They are enjoying a good spell under coach Kevin Muscat and should be primed for another strong showing in front of their home fans.
Statistics reveal a sobering picture for Adelaide fans. Besart Berisha alone has scored just as many goals as the Reds have all season. Established stars such as Marcelo Carrusca have been unable to rediscover the spark that led Adelaide to a well-deserved maiden title last season, and it looks highly unlikely that things will turn around here for the Argentine and his team.
Melbourne meanwhile have had no such trouble scoring goals, and with Marco Rojas in devastating touch, Adelaide will have a hard time limiting the potency of a Victory outfit that invariably carves up the opposition at home.
Indeed, only hubris can get the better of Melbourne tonight. The pressure is on to catch Sydney FC with another Big Blue match-up just around the corner and the Victory may be a little guilty of looking ahead to that contest rather than focusing on the task at hand. This may provide Adelaide with a small window of opportunity to strike.
Prediction
With simply too much to play for, Melbourne should get the job done against a competitive Adelaide.
Melbourne 3-1