Roar Guru
The Melbourne Victory return to AAMI Park for a Friday night fixture against top-six hopefuls Brisbane Roar, with both teams coming off a loss. Join The Roar for live updates from 7:50pm (AEDT).
These teams are starting to get to desperation stages, though for different (but not entirely dissimilar) reasons.
Both need to not only start accumulating some serious points – one to make the top four, the other just to make the six – but some consistent form.
Kevin Muscat is always good at defending the upside of his team, as was shown last week, despite a 2-nil loss in Newcastle. As the coach pointed out, the Victory created more chances than the home side, but their finishing in front of goal was the issue.
The problem for Muscat is that his team don’t finish enough, and concede easy goals too often.
As for Brisbane, well, if their star striker knew how to take a convincing penalty, maybe they’d be riding a bit higher, having lost to Melbourne City in their last start.
The Roar have not got going this season, and if they’re hoping to make a run into form and finals, they’re leaving it late – perhaps a little too late.
Brisbane have won three of their last four away from home, which John Aloisi should have plastered on every available space in training this week, because to stay in the top-six race, they need to win yet another game on the road.
Prediction
Melbourne too strong at home. Besart Berisha doesn’t go too long without scoring, so he should cause some trouble.
Melbourne 3-1.