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Melbourne City FC
0
95
Sydney FC
3
| 92' |  | A. L. Fondre | ||
| R. McGree |  | 75' | ||
| 61' | | A. L. Fondre | ||
| S. Jamieson | | 45' | ||
| H. Delbridge | | 26' | ||
| 18' | | B. O'Neill | ||
| 16' | | P. Retre |
| 9 | Shots | 7 | ||
| 2 | On Target | 4 | ||
| 17 | Fouls | 15 | ||
| 2 | Corners | 1 | ||
| 4 | Offsides | 2 | ||
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 | ||
| 3 | Yellow Cards | 1 |
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After being treated to a thrilling FFA Cup midweek, Round 3 rolls around to offer a smarting Sydney FC with a chance to return to form when they travel to AAMI Park to take on Melbourne City at 7:50pm (AEDT). Join The Roar for live scores and a blog of the match.
Sydney FC may feel hard done by getting a Friday timeslot after a midweek matchup, but the disappointment of losing the FFA Cup to Adelaide United on Tuesday should spur them into this contest.
The three-day turnaround will also tempt Sydney FC to rotate their squad a little, as their starting line-up has only had one change all year, with Paolo Retre coming in for Siem De Jong after Week 1.
Given we saw Daniel De Silva for the first time off the bench in the Cup final, he may be the obvious choice for more minutes in this one.
Despite their FFA Cup final loss, Sydney FC sit top of the A-League ladder after 2 rounds, claiming a fortunate draw in Round 1, and a deserved, yet controversial, VAR-tainted victory against the Wanderers in Round 2. Steve Corica’s first A-League gig has started well, and the early form of poacher Adam LeFondre will inspire enthusiasm from The Cove.
Melbourne City sit in third with a matching set of results: one win (in the derby over Victory), and late equaliser against the Mariners last week despite dominating possession (62 per cent).
City are still tinkering with their engine room, with Warren Joyce introducing Riley McGree, Lachlan Wales and Kearyn Baccus into a midfield structure that relied heavily on Daniel Arzani in the back half of last season.
This is City’s first home game, and they are hoping their myriad of membership initiatives – like blanket social media marketing, beer cross-promotions and variety of membership packages – will pull a crowd for this top of the table clash.
And after watching how Adelaide went about beating, and nearly beating, Sydney in the last fortnight they will be full of ideas. If the speed of Wales, Vidosic and McGree can pressure the Sydney back four, they should create chances for a finisher of Fornaroli’s class to score.
Alternatively, Sydney will like their chances against City’s error-prone defence, and City’s central midfield can be played through given Luke Brattan’s lack of pace and tackling muscle. Ninkovic, Alex Brosque and, potentially, Daniel DeSilva will be eager to drop into midfield to collect and thread passes to LeFondre in hot form.
Prediction
This should be a tight contest between two reasonably matched teams. Sydney has more talent in their forward third, but if City staves them of possession (like Adelaide did) then they may find the going tricky on tired legs.
Melbourne City 1 – Sydney FC 1.
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