After 48 days without a competitive match, Perth Glory welcome Adelaide United to HBF Park where they will play their first A-League match of the new campaign.
The Glory will be looking to open a league season with a win for the first time since 2014-15, while Adelaide are hoping to extend their unbeaten run in the top-flight to three matches.
Match preview
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Perth Glory are gearing up for their opening league match of the new season as well as their first game in 2021 after delays have halted their campaign. The club were forced to quarantine once their spell in the Asian Champions League was completed at the end of 2020.
Richard Garcia, who was appointed head coach in September last year, had an unsuccessful time in the ACL group stages as his side failed to win any of their six Group F matches, losing five of those games and conceding 11 goals.
The 39-year-old, who previously played for Hull City in the Premier League and also represented Australia at the 2010 World Cup, is hoping that his Glory side can brush aside their Champions League misery and start the new campaign brightly.
Perth, who are unbeaten in their last three home matches against Adelaide, could move up to seventh in the table if they were to secure their first three points of the season on Wednesday.
Unlike Perth, Adelaide United are up and running after a goalless draw on the opening day of the season against Western United was shortly followed by a 2-0 win over Melbourne City on January 3.
Second half strikes from forward Tomi Juric and captain Stefan Mauk secured the three points and moved them up to fourth in the table.
The Reds are undefeated in all seven A-League games since head coach Carl Veart took the reins in June last year – winning three and drawing the other four – only former boss Rini Coolen has begun his career with a longer unbeaten streak in A-League history. The Dutchman went 11 games without defeat when he was in charge of Adelaide back in 2010.
Veart has the task of guiding United to their first league title since 2015-16 and hopes that his side can build on a solid start with another win in midweek.
Victory on Wednesday would move Adelaide onto seven points, level with new-boys side Macarthur, who are currently top of the table.
Perth Glory form (all competitions): LLLDL
Adelaide United Australian A-League form: DW
Team News
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Perth Glory have a fully fit squad to choose from but as their last match was played in early December, the players will have a lack of match fitness heading into Wednesday's match.
Thirty-five-year-old midfielder Neil Kilkenny is likely to provide experience in the starting lineup and play alongside 20-year-old Declan Hughes.
Adelaide boss Carl Veart could name the same starting lineup for the third successive match on Wednesday.
Forward Tomi Juric, who scored in the last match against Melbourne City, is likely to keep his place up front alongside Yaya Dukuly and Ben Halloran.
Perth Glory possible starting lineup:
Reddy; Ingham, Lachman, Aspropotamitis, Walsh; Hughes, Kilkenny; Stynes, Bafford; Fornaroli, Colli
Adelaide United possible starting lineup:
Delianov; Strain, Elsey, Jakobsen, Smith; Caletti, Mauk, D'Arrigo; Dukuly, Jruic, Halloran
We say: Perth Glory 1-2 Adelaide United
Perth Glory head into Wednesday's match excited to finally begin their new campaign and will be hoping to start with a victory. However, Glory must be wary of their opponents who have started the season brightly.
The injection of pace that youngsters such as Mohamed Toure and Yaya Dukuly can provide may cause Perth problems on the counter-attack and with Garcia's men lacking match sharpness, the Reds could secure a narrow win on Wednesday.
Top betting tip
Oliver Thomas
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 Adelaide United win with a probability of 43.21%. A win for Perth Glory had a probability of 32.23% and a draw had a probability of 24.6%.
The most likely scoreline for an Adelaide United win was 1-2 with a probability of 9.04%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-1 (8.65%) and 0-2 (6.81%). The likeliest Perth Glory win was 2-1 (7.62%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.48%). The actual scoreline of 5-3 was predicted with a 0.1% likelihood.
