Two in-form sides in the Australian top-flight face off on Sunday as Perth Glory welcome Macarthur to HBF Park.
The hosts will be aiming to claim their first ever win over the visitors after picking up just a point from the previous two encounters with the visitors.
Match preview
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Perth Glory continued their late charge for a playoff place last time out when they secured a 2-1 victory over Adelaide United.
Bruno Fornaroli cancelled out Kusini Yengi's opener in the 73rd minute before Chris Ikonomidis completed the comeback with an 88th-minute strike.
Richard Garcia's men are currently on their longest winning run of the season, having won each of their last four outings since a 3-1 loss to Melbourne City.
This sharp upturn in form has put Perth Glory in contention for a place in the playoffs as they now sit in eighth place in the log, level on points with Western Sydney Wanderers and three points behind Brisbane Roar in the final playoff place.
On the other hand, Macarthur strengthened their position in the top half of the table when they beat Melbourne Victory 3-1 last time out.
Elvis Kamsoba pulled one back in the 79th minute after Matt Derbyshire and James Meredith had given the Bulls a comfortable lead, but Derbyshire completed his brace 11 minutes later to restore the two-goal advantage.
Ante Milicic's men have now picked up two consecutive wins and are unbeaten in their last five outings, dating back to April 14, when they lost 3-1 against Adelaide United.
While they still have a game in hand, Macarthur are currently fifth in the league table with 37 points, three behind second-placed Sydney FC.
However, there are only four points separating them from the bottom half of the table, and they will aim to avoid any slip-ups as the season draws to a close.
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Team News
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Perth Glory will be without the services of defender Sebastian Langkamp, who is sidelined with a groin injury.
Other than that, Garcia has a full strength squad to select from and we expect the 39-year-old to name his strongest starting XI.
Macarthur will take to the pitch defender Aleksandar Jovanovic, who has been ruled out due to a calf problem.
Australian-born winger Thomas Oar is a doubt for this tie as he has missed the last four games through injury.
With 13 goals and three assists this season, Matt Derbyshire has been a star performer for the Bulls and he will be one to look out for on Sunday.
Perth Glory possible starting lineup:
Reddy; Lachman, Aspropotamitis, Ota; Armiento, Bodnar, Timmins, Ikonomidis; Bramwell, Castro, Fornaroli
Macarthur possible starting lineup:
Federici; McGing, Milligan, Susnjar; L.Rose, Benat, Martis, Meredith; Susaeta, Derbyshire, M'Mombwa
We say: Perth Glory 2-2 Macarthur
Perth Glory and Macarthur head into this tie in similar form, having claimed a series of important wins in recent weeks. With both sides evenly matched on paper, we predict the spoils will be shared with either side grabbing two goals apiece.
Joshua Ojele
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 Perth Glory win with a probability of 47.86%. A win for Macarthur had a probability of 30% and a draw had a probability of 22.1%.
The most likely scoreline for a Perth Glory win was 2-1 with a probability of 9.1%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (6.42%) and 2-0 (6.14%). The likeliest Macarthur win was 1-2 (7.04%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (9.51%). The actual scoreline of 1-1 was predicted with a 9.5% likelihood.
