Struggling Melbourne Victory will face off against neighbours Melbourne City in the A-League's Melbourne derby this Saturday at Marvel Stadium.
Victory are in desperate need of relief as the Australian giants sit at the bottom of the ladder with just one win this season.
Match preview
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Little has gone right for Saturday's hosts in 2020-21 under new coach Grant Brebner, as the team has picked up a mere seven points from its nine fixtures.
Known as one of the biggest clubs in the A-League, Scotsman Brebner is feeling the heat as Victory continue to under-perform.
The team has only scored 10 goals this season and is conceding, on average, 1.88 per game.
Victory's last match was a heart-breaking 4-3 defeat at the hands of Western United, courtesy of a late Victor Sanchez strike.
Time is running out for Brebner, and if he doesn't turn the tide soon he may find himself out of a job.
Meanwhile, crosstown rivals City have had struggles of their own but last Tuesday they impressively knocked off Western Sydney 2-0.
It was their second win in a row and City will be targeting a third consecutive victory this weekend.
The club are currently in seventh spot in the table, with four wins and four defeats from their eight matches.
Historically in the Melbourne derby little has separated these two sides, with Victory winning 13 and City 11 of their 32 past encounters.
They last met in February 2020, during the 2019-20 campaign, where City claimed a 2-1 result.
Melbourne Victory Australian A-League form: DLLLWL
Melbourne City Australian A-League form: WLLLWW
Team News
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Victory are at full fitness for this fixture with Brebner having a full squad to choose from.
Jake Brimmer is enjoying a good season for the men in dark blue, already contributing three goals and two assists.
He will need support from new signings Rudy Gestede and Callum McManaman if Victory are to trouble City.
City boss Patrick Kisnorbo has no injury concerns ahead of this match.
Striker Jamie Maclaren is in great touch, scoring seven goals, and has been ably helped by wide men Adrian Luna and Craig Noone.
Melbourne Victory possible starting lineup:
Crocombe; Roux, Broxham, Anderson, Markovic; McManaman, Brimmer, Butterfield, Kirdar; Kruse, Gestede
Melbourne City possible starting lineup:
Glover; Atkinson, Reis, Good, Jamieson; Griffiths; Nabbout, Metcalfe, Tsubaki, Noone; Maclaren,
We say: Melbourne Victory 1-1 Melbourne City
Victory are low on confidence and are having trouble finding the back of the net. City are in much better form and have the depth to match.
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 Melbourne City win with a probability of 47.52%. A win for Melbourne Victory had a probability of 29.03% and a draw had a probability of 23.5%.
The most likely scoreline for a Melbourne City win was 1-2 with a probability of 9.38%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-1 (8.19%) and 0-2 (7.13%). The likeliest Melbourne Victory win was 2-1 (7.08%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (10.76%). The actual scoreline of 0-6 was predicted with a 0.2% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Melbourne City would win this match.
