Melbourne City FC will play its first A-League Men match in almost a month when it faces Perth Glory away from home on Wednesday night.
While the team will no doubt be disappointed not to progress to the AFC Champions League knockout stages despite an undefeated Group Stage, focus has quickly shifted back to the domestic campaign at home.
City has two games remaining in its season, the first of course being against Glory on Wednesday, with wins in both seeing it crowned Premiers for a second consecutive season.
That being said, there is also a chance the Premiership could be sealed following Wednesday night’s clash.
Western United, who sits two points adrift of City, are in action in the earlier kick-off, and should it lose or draw and City get the job done over Perth, our City boys will again be Premiers.
While you can guarantee Patrick Kisnorbo’s men won’t be getting ahead of themselves, things are shaping up very nicely for City. Perth come into this clash winless in its past 16 games, while City is undefeated outside of Victoria this year, having won all seven of its last interstate clashes.
Perth was last in action over the weekend where it fought hard to secure a point against Western Sydney with Bruno Fornaroli finding the back of the net in the first half.
Wednesday night’s meeting will mark the third of its kind between teams this season, with City securing four points from the two prior fixtures at AAMI Park. We saw a memorable 88th minute winner from the now-departed Nathaniel Atkinson back in December last year, while more recently we were held to a 2-2 draw in March after first half goals to Florin Berenguer and Mathew Leckie.
The latter of the two could also potentially make his return to City’s line-up in Wednesday’s fixture, with Kisnorbo mentioning in his pre-match press conference that Leckie was held out for precautionary measures in Bangkok with an eye on the ‘big picture’.
Match Details
A-League Men
Perth Glory v Melbourne City FC
Wednesday 3 May, 9:05pm kick-off (AEST)
HBF Park
Live on Paramount+
