Adelaide United entertain Perth Glory in the Australian A-League on Friday morning as the hosts aim to bounce back from a disappointing defeat last time out.
Richard Garcia's men, meanwhile, will be looking to string back-to-back victories together after defeating Melbourne City 3-1 over the weekend.
Match preview
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The Reds have made a decent start to the new A-League campaign, picking up seven points from their first five outings, leaving them in fifth position.
Adelaide missed out on the Final Series playoffs in 2019-20 by a single point, and it was their defence that was largely to blame.
The Coopers Stadium outfit had the second-worst defensive record in the division, conceding 49 goals in their 26 top-flight games.
Carl Veart was appointed as the head coach on a full-time basis over the summer after doing a good job as caretaker manager, but the 50-year-old is yet to iron out Adelaide's issues at the back.
So far, they have leaked eight goals this season, including five against their upcoming opponents earlier in the campaign in a 5-3 defeat.
If Veart has serious ambitions of taking his side to the playoffs this time around, then he will have to shore up their defence as quickly as possible.
Doing so against Perth may be a tall order, though, as the HBF Park outfit are the A-League's top scorers.
Garcia's side have bagged an incredible 13 goals after just four top-flight fixtures in 2020-21 and will be hoping they can do the double over Adelaide in dramatic fashion on Friday.
The Glory are yet to find the right balance between defence and attack, though. While they are the league's highest scorers, they also have the leakiest defence.
Conceding 11 goals in 360 minutes of football is not sustainable if they want to have a successful season that ends with some silverware.
Garcia will know that he has to compromise between entertaining attacking displays and solidity in the defensive third eventually, and this upcoming encounter could be the perfect opportunity to do just that.
Adelaide United Australian A-League form: DWLWL
Perth Glory Australian A-League form: WLLW
Team News
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Summer signing Javi Lopez has yet to start a game for his new club, but the former Espanyol man is in contention to feature in this one.
Vaert will be looking for a reaction from his players after their last performance and may decide to shake his starting XI up for the visit of Perth.
Perth Glory pair Christopher Oikonomidis and Osama Malik are once again unavailable as they continue to suffer from long-term injuries and are still some weeks away from making their return to the first team.
Veteran forward Diego Castro made his first appearance of the season last time out, and the 38-year-old will be hoping he can last the full 90 minutes against Adelaide.
Adelaide United possible starting lineup:
Delianov; Smith, Jakobsen, Elsey, Abetew; Kitto, D'Arrigo, Caletti, Halloran; Yengi, Toure
Perth Glory possible starting lineup:
Velaphi; Ingham, Lachman, Aspropotamitis, Rawlins; Timmins, Kilkenny, Stynes; Castro, Fornaroli, Armiento
We say: Adelaide United 1-3 Perth Glory
Conceding just three goals in their last two games represents progress for Perth defensively, and we fancy them to put in another entertaining display on Friday. They should have too much for Adelaide going forwards and will hope to secure the three points after a closely-fought encounter.
Top betting tip
George Cannon
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Adelaide United win with a probability of 44.01%. A win for Perth Glory had a probability of 31.57% and a draw had a probability of 24.4%.
The most likely scoreline for an Adelaide United win was 2-1 with a probability of 9.11%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (8.64%) and 2-0 (6.91%). The likeliest Perth Glory win was 1-2 (7.52%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.39%). The actual scoreline of 1-2 was predicted with a 7.5% likelihood.
