Melbourne City vs Wellington Phoenix Preview: Team News & Prediction
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Injury ravaged Melbourne City have shared three successive draws ahead of this weekend’s clash as they now take on a mid-table Wellington Phoenix side in New South Wales this week.
Kick-off date/time: Friday 3rd January, 2025: UK – 6:00am / US ET – 1:00am / Thursday 2nd January, 2025 – US PT - 10:00pm
How to watch on TV/online: UK – YouTube / US – ESPN / Australia – Paramount+
Melbourne City Team News: Injury ravaged City
As mentioned, Melbourne City are dealing with several injury issues and they remain without defensive midfielder James Jeggo as well as attacking players such as Alessandro Lopane and Max Caputo as well as Australia international duo Andrew Nabbout and Mathew Leckie.
Predicted XI (4-1-4-1): Beach; Talbot, Trewin, Souprayen, Behich; Schreiber; Cohen, Atkinsin, Ugarkovic, Politidis; Memeti
Unavailable: Necovski (Injured), Jeggo (Injured), Kuen (Injured), Lopane (Injured), Leckie (Injured), Nabbout (Injured), Caputo (Injured)
Questionable:
Wellington Phoenix Team News: Rufer illness
Defensive midfielder Alex Rufer is a doubt for Wellington Phoenix this weekend due to illness. The New Zealanders are dealing with a couple of attacking injuries as winger Marco Rojas remains sidelined alongside Stefan Colakovski.
Predicted XI (4-1-4-1): Oluwayemi; Payne, Sheridan, Wotton, Sutton; Rufer; Ishige, Retre, Nagasawa, Brooke-Smith; Barbarouses
Unavailable: Rojas (Injured), Colakovski (Injured)
Questionable: Rufer (Illness)
Melbourne City vs Wellington Phoenix Prediction
Melbourne City come into this one on the back of a 1-1 draw with the Central Coast Mariners at the Central Coast Stadium the other day in which they did have the lead at half-time. That result came on the back of back-to-back draws against Auckland and then Melbourne Victory in the derby. They now face a Wellington Phoenix side that defeated the Newcastle Jets by two goals to one the other day thanks to strikes from Kostas Barbarouses and Paulo Retre. They have underperformed this season, though, and siding with Melbourne City, especially with their home advantage, would appear a good bet for this one.
Melbourne City vs Wellington Phoenix Tip: Double chance – Melbourne City to win or draw
