The following are previews with betting tips for selected fixtures in Round 12 of the 2024/25 A-Leagues Mens season.
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Melbourne City vs Wellington PhoenixFriday January 03, 5:00pm |
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City are unbeaten in six of their last seven matches, whilst the Phoenix are coming off a scorcher of a 2-1 victory against the Jets at home which witnessed Kosta Barbarouses tomahawk the ball from just inside of his own halfway line, past a flailing Ryan Scott and into the back of the net, as the 64X capped Kiwi threw his name into the ring for the Puskas Award. For the visitors their win against Newcastle saw them dominate from all different angles as Barbarouses’s delicious strike hit the target just two-minutes in, whilst his side also shot an extremely respectable 4/12 on target. This as their other strike was also an outside the box screamer from 2X A-League Championship winner Paulo Retre in the 59th minute. Meanwhile at Industree Group Stadium, Melbourne’s 1-1 stalemate against the Central Coast saw Defender Samuel Souprayen register a first ever A-League goal, as his side had 65% possession of the ball and earned eight corner kicks to their name, in comparison to the Mariners paltry one. And with the hosts just three points off 2nd and Wellington only two points off City, you can bet this game will be as chaotically entertaining as ever.
Player to be weary of – 3X OFC Nations Cup winner Striker Kosta Barbarouses heads to AAMI Park ageing like fine wine. The 34-year-old has put up six goals so far this campaign, as he leads the Golden Boot race. This is on the back of him registering 13 goals + 5 assists last season for what was an extremely good ‘Nix’ team. And after his absolute stunner at home not that long ago there’s no telling what he’s capable of right here.
Betting tips: Pick City to collect a dub at $1.79 (Betfair)
Also pick City to collect the most corners at $1.38 (Unibet)
And for there to be a goal or more in H1 and H2 at $1.57 (bet365)
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Perth Glory vs Western UnitedFriday January 03, 9:45pm |
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Perth currently sit second last on the ladder with just five points from 10 games played so far. They’ve given up 27 goals and in stark comparison have put up just the five themselves. Their latest result was a 3-0 shellacking at the hands of Macarthur at HBF Park. Meanwhile for the ‘Green & Black’ their season is going much, much better then expected so far as they are just one win off 2nd place currently. That whilst the likes of Hiroshi Ibusuki – 5 goals + 1 assist and Noah Botic 3 goals + 4 assists have helped steer their current fine run of form, three successive victories. The latest of those being a tight 1-0 win against the Brisbane Roar at Ironbark Fields. They might’ve needed a dicey Ibusuki penalty to get the job done but for John Aloisi’s Men they won’t have cared, as it’ll have been mission accomplished in their eyes. And they’ll be very confident of making it four wins from their last four attempts given they’ve won 10 of their last 12 matchups against the Glory. Ibusuki hit them up for 2 goals in their last meeting against one another, as did Botic with 2 assists in what was a crushing 3-1 win at Allianz Stadium. As a result Perth will have to both do and get a lot right in this affair in order to turn around things in their favour.
Player to be weary of – Young Striker Noah Botic conjured up 16 goals in 20 games for Australia’s various youth levels and 3 goals in 5 games for the Wanderers NPL team. And now for the ‘Green & Black’ this season he has scored and assisted on a previously mentioned 3 goals and 4 assists. The 22-year-old who was once dubbed a future Socceroo by head coach John Aloisi will undoubtedly be licking his lips at the prospect of facing off against a defence that has leaked 19 goals over the course of their last seven encounters. This will be a massive test for him to prove that he’s capable of putting teams to the sword.
Betting tips: Look for both teams to find the back of the net at $1.53 (Betfair)
And look for one of those goals to come via Hiroshi Ibusuki as an anytime goal scorer at $2.55 (Unibet)
Also pick the ‘Green & Black’ to strike first with a goal at $1.53 (bet365)
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Newcastle Jets vs Sydney FCSaturday January 04, 5:00pm |
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The last time that Newcastle and Sydney met it was the Jets who ‘fired’ away from McDonald Jones Stadium with a memorable and hefty 3-1 win. Inside the opening half an hour Newcastle were up two to the good thanks to strikes from Clayton Taylor and Reno Piscopo, before Apostolos Stamatelopoulos added the sealer on the hour mark. And with Robert Mak being given his marching orders on the 37-minute mark the game was pretty much dead and buried from there onwards. Prior to that at Allianz Stadium it was the ‘Sky Blues’ who thrashed the visitors 4-0 as they shot 8/22 on target. If I’ve learnt anything from watching this affair over the years it’s that these two teams can put up all sorts of different performances when pitted against one another. Even going all the way back to 2015 in the Hunter Valley who could forget the topsy turvy game that was ultimately a 4-3 win to Sydney. A game which saw Bernie Ibini-Isei score against his future employers whilst donning the sky blue jersey of Sydney. Or in 2018 also in Newcastle, when despite being a Man down for 76+ minutes the Jets still got the job done 2-1. That in spite of Roy O’Donovan’s 14th minute red card. I don’t know what we’ll witness here and that’s part of the beauty of it.
Player to be weary of – I mean who else but English marquee Midfielder Joe Lolley for the Sky Blues. In his sides 3-0 thrashing of the Victory last round at Moore Park the former Nottingham Forest Man scored about 1.30 minutes in, had two on the night and would’ve had a third had VAR not intervened. Whilst for the season he currently has 4 goals + 2 assists from just seven games played. With Midfielder partner-in-crime Douglas Costa also starting to find his feet this screams bad news for Newcastle all over the pitch.
Betting tips: Back a Sydney victory at $1.80 (BetR)
Also look for them to score first at $1.50 (bet365)
And for Joe Lolley to find the back of the net anytime at $2.65 (Unibet)