Last season's Grand Finalists face off again in the Australian A-League on Tuesday morning as Melbourne City entertain Sydney FC.
The hosts, who were defeated 1-0 in the 2019-20 showpiece event, have lost their last three matches, while the reigning champions have gone three games unbeaten.
Match preview
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City finished in second place in the previous campaign and would have been hoping to go one better this time around.
However, they have got off to a difficult start this season, picking up just six points from their opening six outings.
A first-half strike from Valentino Yuel last time out saw Patrick Kisnorbo's men fall to a 1-0 loss against the Newcastle Jets, which made it three defeats on the bounce for the AAMI Park outfit.
If City want to save their season and mount another title charge, then three points in midweek will be needed, and Kisnorbo will undoubtedly have made that message clear to his players.
The Sky Blues, on the other hand, have made a solid start to the new campaign, and are sitting in fifth position after collecting 11 points from their first six fixtures.
Despite trailing league-leaders Central Coast Mariners by seven points, Steve Corica's men are still amongst the title favourites thanks to their three games in hand.
A goalless draw with Brisbane Roar over the weekend ended a two-game winning run for the five-time A-League champions but maintained a three-match unbeaten streak.
Sydney will know that an away win on Tuesday could open up a nine-point gap over their hosts and force them to rethink any plans they had of a title tilt. The current champions will be confident of doing just that.
Melbourne City Australian A-League form: WLWLLL
Sydney FC Australian A-League form: WDLWWD
Team News
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City have had two weeks off since their last outing and have a fully-fit squad to choose from as a result.
Twenty-seven-year-old striker Jamie Maclaren is the main threat for Kisnorbo's men, and the former Hibernian forward will be looking to add to his three league goals in midweek.
Midfielder Chris Zuvela is a long-term absentee for Sydney after the 24-year-old ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament against New Zealand outfit Wellington Phoenix.
Experienced striker Bobo made his highly-anticipated return as a substitute last time out after fully recovering from an injury and could feature from the off on Tuesday, while defender Michael Zullo could return to the bench following a calf injury sustained last month.
Melbourne City possible starting lineup:
Glover; Jamieson, Good, Reis, Atkinson; Berenguer, Luna, Metcalfe; Tsubaki, Maclaren, Noone
Sydney FC possible starting lineup:
Redmayne; Grant, McGowan, Wilkinson, King; Nieuwenhof, Retre; Caceres, Ninkovic; Wood, Barbarouses
We say: Melbourne City 1-2 Sydney FC
These teams were expected to be occupying the top two places at the start of the season, but only one of them has come close to living up to those expectations. We fancy Sydney to come away with all three points from this midweek encounter and pile more misery on City.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Sydney FC win with a probability of 39.89%. A win for Melbourne City had a probability of 35.85% and a draw had a probability of 24.3%.
The most likely scoreline for a Sydney FC win was 1-2 with a probability of 8.65%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-1 (7.68%) and 0-2 (5.94%). The likeliest Melbourne City win was 2-1 (8.14%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.18%). The actual scoreline of 3-2 was predicted with a 3.1% likelihood.
