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Melbourne City are meeting the Wellington Phoenix at home, looking to make it five games unbeaten. Join us on The Roar for some ace banter, commentary and live scores from 4.53pm AEDT exactly!
The Phoenix will be feeling the pressure: Melbourne Victory’s shock loss to the Jets on Friday has added yet another plot twist to the most dramatic A-League title chase ever. The Phoenix have conceded 6 and scored 0 in their last two games. Can they go back top?
Before Perth Glory’s punishment for salary cap breaches was announced, this game was shaping up rather juicily. Now that Melbourne City (and Brisbane Roar) have cemented their place in the top six, it’s now all a matter of determining where they exactly finish; coming into this game on 34 points with three games left, the highest they can hope to mathematically finish is third.
Wellington Phoenix on the other hand – ooh, boy. The season is already about boiling hot in terms of the title race, with the toilet seat trophy changing hands every two seconds. As I mentioned above, the Victory lost to the ninth-placed Jets on Friday.
That, along with Sydney’s win in Perth, means that excluding the third-placed* Perth Glory, the top four are separated by only 2 points (the Victory have a game in hand, however).
So, if Wellington win this one, after Adelaide lost their game against the Roar, they can go top for at least 3 days.
Whilst it may seem as if this game matters a whole lot more to the Phoenix than City, keep in mind that a good run of form coming into the finals from a low placing is a situation perhaps more ideal than entering the playoffs ranked first, second or third.
In the last two years of the Championship, for example, 4th-placed QPR (2014) and 5th-placed Crystal Palace (2013) have won promotion to the Premier League via the play-off final.
In squad news, Phoenix talisman Joel Griffiths’ season is over after his knee knack picked up against Wellington has unfortunately turned out to be a ruptured ACL.
That’s really the only big bit of ins-and-outs news, although Connor Chapman (City) and Albert Riera (Phoenix) both return from suspension this week. Also, Patrick Kisnorbo has just re-signed with City for another year.
Prediction:
Wellington will be itching to get back and have more to play for in this game, whereas Melbourne City coach John van ‘t Schip might be looking for his lads to take a breather in preparation for the finals.
Melbourne City 1 – 2 Wellington Phoenix
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