ROUND 15 PREVIEW: Wellington Phoenix vs Melbourne Victory
Wellington Phoenix vs Melbourne Victory
Saturday 18 January
Kickoff: 7:30pm (NZDT), 9:30pm (AEDT)
Westpac Stadium, Wellington NZ
Referee: Adam Kersey
Wellington Phoenix play their second consecutive home match this Saturday evening against the travelling Melbourne Victory. The Phoenix are showing a lot of improvement since the beginning of the season and have managed to go on a four game unbeaten run, however their home record still needs improving if they are to make a push for the playoffs this season. They head into round 15 after a draw at home against last season’s champions, Central Coast Mariners.
This will be the third match in just over a week for the Victory after hosting a midweek game against the Wanderers. Showing no signs of fatigue the Victory managed to win that match 3-1 and will head across the Tasman looking to add to their fantastic record against the NIx, who only have two wins in 19 encounters between the sides.
It will be the second time Ernie Merrick has come up against the club he led to two A-League championships. He’ll be desperate to get a win over his former captain Kevin Muscat and even the ledger after losing the first encounter between the two sides back in November.
Head to head: Played 19. Phoenix 2, Victory 11, Draws 6.
Previous encounter: Victory 3-2 Phoenix, 4 Nov 2013 (Round 4)
Possible XI:
Wellington Phoenix: Moss – Boxall, Sigmund, Durante, Muscat – Reira, Lia – Cunningham, Hernandez, Brockie, Huysegems
Melbourne Victory: Coe – Broxham, Leijer, Traore, Murnane – Troisi, Thompson, Mahazi, Jeggo – Nabbout, Barbarouses
Eyes On: Kosta Barbarouses
The expat Kiwi and current All White returns to his city of birth after a good display against the Wanderers on Tuesday. Barbarouses hasn’t quite reached the level expected of him when he arrived in Melbourne back at the beginning of the season and it will be interesting to see if he can cary his good mid-week form through to the match against his former team.
Prediction:
The Phoenix will fancy their chances against the Victory having gone four matches without a loss and encountering a team playing their third game in a short space of time. However their record against the Victory makes for awful reading and even understrength the Victory are dangerous, as they proved against the Wanderers earlier in the week. This one looks to be heading for a draw although both teams will fancy their chances of finding a match winner in the later stages of the game.
Phoenix 2 – 2 Victory
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