Australian A1 League: Perth Glory vs Melbourne City Preview, Odds, Prediction

On one side, we have Melbourne City, cruising past opponents at full speed and topping the standings, while on the other sits struggling Perth Glory, who is experiencing failure after failure. The home team still has some chances to enter the playoffs, but the margin for error in the upcoming few matches is minimal. Better to say it doesn’t exist. Meanwhile, City has three points ahead of CC Mariners, but what many tend to forget, two games in hand compared to the first rivals. They are, without a doubt, the best team in the league right now.

Preview

Perth Glory (+375) has just one win in the past 10 games, and along with that four draws and five defeats, which is terrible knowing that they started the campaign much better.

Their defense is atrocious, and the latest match against Macarthur FC, which ended without goals, 0-0, was the first one for Glory in which they kept clean sheets since August 2020. On the other side, the offense hasn’t been much better lately, as Richard Garcia’s boys failed to hit the target in five of the previous ten games.

That might be because of Bruno Fornaroli’s poor form. Glory’s top striker hasn’t scored a goal in the past six games, which is terrible. As a consequence, the efficiency of the entire team has been decreased.

Melbourne City (-120), unlike Glory, has completely the opposite results, suffering just one defeat in the previous 12 matches. They would shift into a higher gear during that stretch, posting nine victories and two draws besides that single failure, that happened against Wester United on the road, 2-1.

Opposite to Fornaroli, City’s top scorer, Jamie MacLaren, seems unstoppable, having already 20 goals on his account in 18 appearances. He’s been terrorizing the rivals’ defenses ever since the campaign started, scoring almost 50% of MC’s 42 goals.

City plays efficient football, and during the victorious streak, eight of those 12 events saw over 2.5 goals.

Latest News

Osama Malik and Christopher Oikonomidis absent for a long time, and they won’t be eligible for Wednesday’s game, while Diego Castro should be ready to appear following his injury.

Among City, Patrick Kinsboro and Aiden O’Neill won’t be ready to play, and remain out of the protocol.

Head to Head Games

Glory is better in head-to-head matches, having 17 wins, compared to City’s 8, while 10 contests saw no winners. The first game of the year in Melbourne saw Glory beating the hosts, 1-3. Yet, the most recent match at HBF Park in Perth witnessed City’s 2-3 victory.

Prediction

In our opinion, the average punter has two options here. The first, safer one, with a bit lower profits, is over 2.5 goals, which is currently at -190. This will be an open match, do know that, and we expect to see high efficiency. The other pick is Melbourne City to win at -130. They are far better than Glory, both when looking at the current form and the overall picture, plus the guests have a big motive to get even for the loss from the first part of the season. It was one of rare situations where they left home pitch empty-handed.