Marvel Stadium is the venue as Melbourne Victory and Wellington Phoenix go head-to-head in their Australia FFA Cup semi-final tie.
Melbourne Victory have enjoyed a three-game unbeaten start to the new calendar year (W1, D2), including a 2-1 win over Adelaide United in the previous FFA Cup round. However, a lack of defensive proficiency has seen Tony Popovic’s men go eight competitive matches without a clean sheet, conceding an average of 1.5 goals per game. Against this backdrop, the hosts have held Wellington at bay in their last two A-League H2Hs on home turf (W1, D1), with both of them featuring under 2.5 overall goals. Indeed, the ‘Victory’ haven’t lost any of their last seven home meetings with this opposition (W3, D4) since falling to a 3-0 defeat back in April 2017, netting 2+ goals four times in the process.
On the other hand, Wellington Phoenix squeezed past Melbourne City in the previous FFA Cup round, progressing via penalties following a goalless 120 minutes of play. A 2-1 home victory over Western United last time out halted Wellington’s run of three consecutive games without winning (D1, L2 – 90mins only), two of which saw them fail to get on the scoresheet. Away from home, Ufuk Talay’s men have only won once in their last five competitive outings (D1, L3), worryingly conceding over 1.5 goals on three occasions in that sequence. With eight of their 11 goals shipped in that run of fixtures coming beyond half-time, Wellington’s second-half leaks could be a massive issue heading into this tie. Their attacking displays during that five-game run also flattered to deceive, as they netted under 1.5 goals four times.
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