The Melbourne Derby is back!
City is set to take on its cross-town rivals for the first time this season on Saturday night.
While this fixture in a Victory home match, you can still expect to see plenty of City blue around AAMI Park with the Away ticket allocation selling out early in the week.
Patrick Kisnorbo’s men have started the season strongly, picking up wins in each of their first two matches to sit on top of table in the early stages.
City most recently travelled to Brisbane to take on the Roar and left with the three points thanks to a Jamie Maclaren brace.
One of the big talking points to come out of that fixture was a straight red card shown to Taras Gomulka, meaning City will be without the midfielder for Saturday’s Derby.
After sticking with the same line-up for the first two rounds, this means Kisnorbo will now be forced into his first change of the season.
Marco Tilio and Richard van der Venne are the names the immediately spring to mind as potential inclusions, both more than capable of playing a key role in the middle of the park if called upon.
Whoever is selected will likely join an impressive midfield duo thus far in Aiden O’Neill and Valon Berisha, with the latter set for a first Melbourne Derby as a famous name returns to the fixture.
Neither of City’s opponents thus far have been able to come up with an answer for the team’s numerous threats going forward, but expect Victory to be just as fired up.
After taking on a couple of more defensive-minded teams in the first few weeks, Saturday night could see some fireworks at AAMI Park with both sides seeming set to play an attacking style of football.
Despite a season-opening away win, Victory enters the Derby off the back of a disappointing loss last time out, going down 1-0 at home to Western Sydney.
After not having beaten it’s cross-town rivals since a memorable night in April 2021, your City boys will be desperate to take home three points from the first Derby of 2022/23.
Match Details
Isuzu UTE A-League: Round 3
Melbourne Victory v Melbourne City FC
Saturday 22 October, 7:45pm kick-off
AAMI Park
