Melbourne City assured their place in the Finals Series play-offs in the A-League by finishing runners-up to Sydney FC at the end of the Australian top flight regular season, and they’ll now head into this semi-final against Western United on the back of three matches without defeat.
Melbourne made a solid return to action in the A-League following the lifting of the lockdown as Erick Mombaerts’s side gained important victories over Sydney FC and Wednesday evening’s opponents, Western United, in 2-0 and 3-1 wins, so they’ll be in confident mood ahead of this crucial clash.
Unless a club is based in Sydney, all fixtures following the resumption of the season have effectively been away matches, and Melbourne City have won three of their last four matches on the road with wins against Perth Glory, Central Coast Mariners and the aforementioned win against Western United.
In addition, the head-to-head results against Western United are favourable for Melbourne City as they’ve won all of the previous three encounters by 3-1, 3-2 and 2-1 margins respectively.
Onto Western United, and Mark Rudan’s side may be the newest franchise club in the A-League with this being their first ever season in the Australian top flight but they’ve made an instant impact and have claimed more than a few major scalps on their way to these finals.
A 5th place finish is not to be sneezed at and they claimed a top six finish at the first attempt thanks to an impressive closing sequence of results which saw them win seven of their final nine matches to achieve 5th spot.
Within these victories were impressive wins against Perth Glory and Sydney FC as well as their recent elimination final 1-0 win against a well-established Brisbane Roar outfit to claim their place in the semi-finals of this season’s competition.
Following a slump in form which saw Western United without a win from four away matches between December and January, they showed character and resilience to bounce back by winning five of their last six matches on the road and must be respected here.
However, if Melbourne City can keep Western United striker, Berisha (19 goals) quiet, then City have the necessary firepower in the shape of MacLaren (22 goals) to progress to the final.