The Western Sydney Wanderers will find out after 7.00pm AEST tonight who their grand final opponent will be.
This afternoon both Central Coast Mariners and Melbourne Victory will be battling at Bluetongue Stadium with a grand final place at stake.
Melbourne Victory turned around their performance at Etihad last Friday week, after trailing 1-0 when Shane Smeltz missed a penalty kick for Glory.
Few minutes later referee Jarred Gillett awarded a penalty to the Victory after Steve Pantelidis fouled Andrew Nabbout and got sent off.
The replay showed that Andrew Nabbout handballed before Steve Pantelidis committed the foul.
After that controversial moment Mark Milligan scored the penalty and took the game into extra game. During extra time Archie Thompson scored Victory’s second goal, which was enough to take the Victory into today’s semi-final.
Melbourne Victory’s last visit to Bluetongue was in Round 22 which the Mariners destroyed the Victory 6-2 in a wet match.
Victory will need to control this game and not lose many turnovers as the Mariners will punish the Victory like they did in Round 22.
Besides the onslaught in Round 22, Victory did produced good performance against the Mariners with draws in Round 7 at Etihad and Round 16 in Launceston, Tasmania.
Victory’s first half performance against the Mariners in Launceston was outstanding. If Victory can reproduce that performance, we will have a great semi-final on our hands.
The Mariners have not played a league game two weeks ago when they defeated Melbourne Heart 2-1 at Bluetongue.
However they did travel to China last week to play in the Asian Champions League game on Tuesday night, which the Mariners lost 2-1 to Guizhou Renhe with seven players rested from their senior list due to today’s game.
Graham Arnold’s squad did not win the Premier’s Plate this season and now the championship is the club’s main priority.
That was well documented by Arnold’s decision to have seven players rested for an ACL game, which indicates that the Mariners want to advance to their forth grand final appearance.
I believe Central Coast will win this game in normal time as Victory still have defensive issues which was still shown in the Perth Glory elimination final match last week.
If the game changes momentum in Victory’s way, then they could reproduce the fight that was shown against Perth and have a great chance to advance to the grand finale.
Also I’m expecting a good tactical battle between Graham Arnold and Victory’s coach Ange Postecoglou.
Whichever team does progress to the grand final next Sunday at Sydney Football Stadium will need to work tactically and mentally to shut down the 13 match unbeaten Wanderers from winning the crown.
However, this afternoon, their first task is to win the semi-final.
Deakie
Guest
We now have a result and it's a CCM vs WSW grand final. A grand final deserving of the top two teams all season....thankfully.
Jaiden Florimo
Roar Rookie
Central Coast have been the better team for the first 41 minutes. Nothing to show for it though at this stage.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Another interesting statistic from this year's A-League GF - either CCM or MVFC will have played in 4 out of the 8 A-League Grand Finals. Which is quite a remarkable achievement for either club & places them well ahead of the rest of the A-League. In fact, for 1 more year, last year will remain the only A-League GF which did not feature either CCM or MVFC. Time for other team's to step up. CCM, of course, haven't yet won the knock-out competition; MVFC has won it twice.
Philip
Guest
The Victory defence has been shaky all year and I reckon a lot is going to depend on Nathan Coe. If he can take ownership of his box and confidently deal with crosses and corners in the first 10-15 minutes (something he hasn't done well at all this year) that will give his defenders and midfielders a much needed confidence boost to go about their business. CCM are without doubt a more consistent team than Victory. Victory looked sluggish from kick-off last week against Perth and couldnt string 5 passes together. When Victory start the game at a high tempo they can scare any team and they need to put CCM on the back foot from the start if they are going to be successful. The first 15 minutes will be crucial for both teams to set the mood of the match. That said, it might also be won in the 89th minute against the run of play ! Cant wait.
Nick Guthrie
Roar Pro
I think the Mariners will have a win here but Melbourne will surely dominate some periods of the game if the attack gets going. Mariners should be relatively fresh and I think Melbourne's recent inability to keep a clean sheet will cost them here. Could be a great game especially if it starts to open up and starts going end to end. Looking forward to it!
Johnno
Guest
The coast.
pete4
Guest
Being at home I think CCM will advance... but if Thompson and Rojas click it will be very interesting
Cameron
Roar Guru
I think we may see extra time. As for who wins? This one is hard! I'm not fussed who wins actually..I just want another good match and then a good grand final.