This New Year’s Day A-League action sees Macarthur FC make the trip to face Western Sydney Wanderers at CommBank Stadium. It is a crucial match for the home side as they will want to stay as close to the leaders as possible.
Both teams are coming into this match in good form. Western Sydney Wanderers are lower down in the A-League standings, but their form might not suggest that. They haven’t lost in four out of their last five games with them unbeaten in their most recent four games. On a better unbeaten run however is their opponents in this match, Macarthur FC. They haven’t lost in their last five games and a win in their most recent game gives them a good chance of picking up three points once more this Wednesday on New Year’s Day.
Formation: 4-4-2
Predicted Line-Up: Lawrence Thomas (c); Jack Clisby, Alex Bonetig, Dean Pelekanos, Gabriel Cléùr; Oscar Priestman, Joshua Brillante, Juan Mata, Nicolas Milanovic; Brandon Borrello, Marcus Antonsson
Western Sydney Wanderers have had a decent start to the campaign, finding themselves just outside the qualification places. After nine games they sit in seventh place with four wins, three losses and two draws. Those matches have left them with 14 points, sharing that tally with Melbourne City FC but it is goal difference that is the key factor in them not being higher up the table. Providing nine goal contributions for The Wanderers so far this season has been Brandon Borrello. It hasn’t been just him that has impressed though, winger Nicolas Milanovic has just one less contribution to Borrello with eight. Between the two of them however, the pair of the have amassed toward 17 goals, whether that be assists or putting the ball in the back of the net themselves. With Western Sydney Wanderers having scored 22 goals, the duo of Milanovic and Borrello have contributed to 77.27% of the goals that have been scored by their club this season. With this in mind, that partnership could be vital in Sydney’s plans to earn three points and shoot up the table come the full time whistle this New Year’s Day.
Formation: 4-3-3
Predicted Line-Up: Filip Kurto; Walter Scott, Oliver Jones, Matthew Jurman, Kealey Adamson; Liam Rose, Jake Hollman, Luke Brattan; Marin Jakolis, Valère Germain (c), Jed Drew
Like their opponents, Macarthur FC have had a bit of a great season, finding themselves higher up the table as their opposition but with one more match played over Western Sydney though. After 10 games they sit in fourth place with four wins, three losses and three draws. Those matches have left them with 15 points, sharing that tally with Western United FC but goal difference the reason they are higher up the standings. Western Sydney Wanderers are close behind them by a single point so a win for Macarthur will be at the top of their minds to try and get free from them. In the goals for The Bulls has been winger Marin Jakolis. The Croatian has put his name upon the scoresheet four times and providing five assists this season from 10 matches he’s featured in. He could more than well be key in Macarthur’s efforts of grabbing all three points against Western Sydney Wanderers on New Year’s Day.
The last five faceoffs have been split in the favour of Burnley but some of those results were almost five years ago now, not really the most telling scores. The best fixture to go off is the most recent one in which Burnley took all three points back to Turf Moor after beating Stoke 0-2, a win on the cards once more this Wednesday.
1st April 2024 – Macarthur FC 1-3 Western Sydney Wanderers – A-League
4th February 2024 – Macarthur FC 4-3 Western Sydney Wanderers – A-League
1st January 2024 – Western Sydney Wanderers 3-1 Macarthur FC – A-League
8th April 2023 – Macarthur FC 2-2 Western Sydney Wanderers – A-League
25th February 2023 – Western Sydney Wanderers 4-0 Macarthur FC – A-League
Both sides have shown that they can dominate each other from their past results across the last couple of seasons. Those matches have tended to involve lots of goals and this New Year’s Day doesn’t seem like that trend will change.
For that reason, our betting experts have gone with Both Teams To Score as our best value tip for this game.
Odds of 4/9 mean that a £10 bet has the potential to return up to £14.40 in this match.
(odds subject to change)
Western Sydney Wanderers 2-2 Macarthur FC
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