Saturday’s A-League Round 11 match is between Western Sydney Wanderers and Melbourne Victory. The opening kick is set to commence at 14:20 local time with the game to be played at ANZ Stadium. The away team Melbourne Victory are the favourites for the match. View our preview and teams for the game between Western Sydney Wanderers and Melbourne Victory.
When: Sat 5th Jan at 7:50PM AEDT
Where: ANZ Stadium
Bet: Bet On This Match HERE
Preview:
WESTERN SYDNEY WANDERERS (LWLDL) ($2.80) v MELBOURNE VICTORY (WWWDD) ($2.25)
Honda out.
The big news coming out of the Melbourne Victory is the hamstring injury to superstar Keisuke Honda. The Japanese international will miss at least a month which will test just how dependent the Victory were on their new import. Nick Ansell is also injured although the Wolf thinks that Kevin Muscat’s are still one of the better sides in the A-League even with those players out.
The Wanderers seem particularly emotional under Markus Babbel. Every week we are hearing big statements about the team’s struggles coming from the manager, their active fanbase the RBB and even chairman Paul Lederer. If the Wanderers are going to challenge in this game they need to maintain concentration in defence. This was missing against Melbourne City last week in a 2-0 loss.
The Victory were a class above the Wanderers when these two teams met in early December (4-0) and the Wolf expects Melbourne to regroup from Honda’s and find another win at Stadium Australia.
BEST BETS: Melbourne Victory ($2.25)
Teams:
Western Sydney Wanderers FC squad: 5.Brendan HAMILL, 7.Nick FITZGERALD, 8.Jordan O’DOHERTY, 9.Oriol RIERA, 10.Alexander BAUMJOHANN, 11.Bruce KAMAU, 13.Tass MOURDOUKOUTAS, 14.Mathieu CORDIER, 17.Keanu BACCUS, 20.Vedran JANJETOVIC (gk), 21.Tarek ELRICH, 24.Raul LLORENTE, 27.Kwame YEBOAH, 28.Roly BONEVACIA, 33.Tate RUSSELL, 34.Patrick ZIEGLER, 40.Nicholas SUMAN (gk), 49.Abraham MAJOK **two to be omitted
Ins: 14.Mathieu CORDIER (promoted), 27.Kwame YEBOAH (new signing)
Outs: Nil
Unavailable: 4.Josh RISDON (international duty), 16.Jaushua SOTIRIO (injury – one week), 19.Mark BRIDGE (injury – four weeks)
Melbourne Victory squad: 1.Matt ACTON (gk), 2.Storm ROUX, 3.Corey BROWN, 5.Georg NIEDERMEIER 6.Leigh BROXHAM, 7.Kenny ATHIU, 8.Terry ANTONIS, 9.Kosta BARBAROUSES, 10.James TROISI, 11.Ola TOIVONEN, 13.Birkan KIRDAR, 14.Tommy DENG, 15.Raul BAENA, 16.Josh HOPE, 19.Rahmat AKBARI, 20.Lawrence THOMAS (gk), 21.Carl VALERI (C), 24. Elvis KAMSOBA. **two to be omitted**
Ins: 15.Raul BAENA (return from injury), 5.Georg Niedermeier (return from injury), Elvis Kamsoba (promoted)
Outs: 22.Nick Ansell (injured)
Unavailable: Jai Ingham (quad – TBC), Keisuke Honda (Hamstring – 4 weeks)
*Odds correct at time of posting. Subject to change
