Wellington Phoenix host last season's A-League champions in their opening fixture of the new campaign on Saturday when they welcome Sydney FC to the Sky Stadium.
The Australian side will be hoping they can claim their third league title in a row in 2020-21, but they face a tough start to a potentially historic season.
Match preview
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New Zealand's capital club finished third in the A-League in 2019-20. They picked up 41 points from their 26 top flight matches, scoring 38 goals along the way.
However, the Nix were robbed of the chance to compete in the final series due to coronavirus restrictions.
Ufuk Talay's side strengthened significantly over the summer in an attempt to become the first side from New Zealand to win an A-League title.
Wellington lost 3-1 to Sydney the last time these two met, and the Sky Stadium outfit will want to exact some revenge over the weekend.
Steve Corica's side defeated Melbourne City 1-0 in last season's Grand Final to claim their fifth league title.
The Sky Blues could become the first team to ever record three consecutive A-League victories in 2020-21, and they will be hoping to get off to a strong start on Saturday.
Sydney had the joint-best attacking record and the best defensive record in the previous campaign showing their dominance over the division.
They have already experienced competitive action this season following their involvement in the AFC Champions League, recording one victory and two draws in their six group games.
Sydney FC form (all competitions): LLDLWD
Team News
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Talay has overseen a huge overhaul at Wellington over the summer. Six players have arrived at the Sky Stadium, and eight have headed in the opposite direction.
Former Brighton & Hove Albion and Queens Park Rangers striker Tomer Hemed was the star signing, with the 33-year-old striker expected to play a big part in the club's fortunes this campaign.
Reno Piscopo picked up a calf injury earlier this month and has been ruled out of this curtain-raiser.
Sydney have kept the majority of their title-winning squad together over the off-season and have promoted several youth players to the first team to improve competition for places.
The only major departure was talismanic forward Adam Le Fondre. The former Reading and Cardiff City striker joined Mumbai City, and the Englishman will be a big loss to Corica's men.
Adam Pavlesic is unavailable for the current champions after being involved in a serious clash in the AFC Champions League.
Wellington Phoenix possible starting lineup:
Marinovic; McGarry, Hudson-Wihongi, DeVere, McGing; Davila, Devlin, Rufer, Muratovic; Ball, Sotirio
Sydney FC possible starting lineup:
Heward-Belle; King, Warland, Wilkinson, Grant; Brattan, Baumjohann, Ninkovic, Caceres; Barbarouses, Buhagiar
We say: Wellington Phoenix 1-2 Sydney FC
The two teams are fairly evenly matched coming into this one, and it should be a tight, evenly contested affair. The reigning champions have the better squad on paper and will benefit from already playing six competitive fixtures this season, which should give them the edge over Wellington on Saturday.
Top betting 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 37.56%. A win for Wellington Phoenix had a probability of 37.33% and a draw had a probability of 25.1%.
The most likely scoreline for a Sydney FC win was 1-2 with a probability of 8.38%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-1 (8.35%) and 0-2 (5.92%). The likeliest Wellington Phoenix win was 2-1 (8.35%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.8%). The actual scoreline of 1-2 was predicted with an 8.4% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 1-2 win for Sydney FC in this match.
