Adelaide United welcome Melbourne City to the Hindmarsh Stadium on Sunday as they search for their first win of the new season.
United were held to a 0-0 stalemate by Western United in the opening fixture of their campaign and will be looking to build on that result with a win.
Melbourne City edged Brisbane Roar in a hard-fought 1-0 victory earlier this week and will undoubtedly have long-term goals of going one better this season and being crowned champions.
Match preview
Adelaide appointed Carl Veart in the break, and the Australian head coach has made wholesale changes since taking on the managerial role.
Eleven new faces have entered the club, with eight going in the opposite direction as Veart attempts to improve on their seventh-placed finish in 2019-20.
Adelaide United have a good record against Melbourne City and will have fond memories of their 4-0 victory in the FFA Cup final last season.
United have won 13 matches out of a total of 33 games played between the two teams but will be hard pushed to improve on that record come Sunday with City looking one of the strongest outfits in the league this year.
Still, United created their fair share of chances against Western United earlier this week and will hope to show their cutting edge in the final third to win this game.
From City's perspective, they will be looking to begin an A-League campaign with back-to-back wins for the third time in club's history, following their 1-0 win last time out.
They also bring momentum into this fixture, having lost only one of their last nine A-League regular-season games - six of which were wins - and have won their last two in succession.
The last time they enjoyed a longer winning run in such fixtures was a four-match span from October to November in 2019.
Following this match, City will welcome two home fixtures against Western United and Central Coast Mariners.
Adelaide United Australian A-League form: D
Melbourne City Australian A-League form: W
Team News
Ryan Kitto, Yared Abetew and Al Hassan Toure are currently injured and unable to play a part in this fixture.
Veart named a young side in their previous game and will again place his faith in his young guns to get the right result.
Andrew Nabbout sustained a hamstring injury against Brisbane Roar earlier this week and has been ruled out of this game.
Adrian Luna was sent off during the game against the Roar and starts his suspension on Sunday, with Naoki Tsubaki set to deputise.
Adelaide United possible starting lineup:
Delianov; Strain, Timotheou, Marrone, Smith; Mauk, Konstandopoulos, Caletti; Toure, Juric, Halloran
Melbourne City possible starting lineup:
Glover; Garuccio, Griffiths, Goode, Jamieson; Metcalfe, O'Neil, Tsubaki, Nabbout, Noone; Maclaren
We say: Adelaide United 0-2 Melbourne City
With both sides seemingly still trying to find their rhythm, this matchup could lack spark for the most part. That said, if City can click, they will most likely have too much for the Adelaide side, who may lack the experience to keep Melbourne at bay.
Top betting tip
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 Melbourne City win with a probability of 46.65%. A win for Adelaide United had a probability of 30.03% and a draw had a probability of 23.3%.
The most likely scoreline for a Melbourne City win was 1-2 with a probability of 9.28%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-1 (7.76%) and 0-2 (6.8%). The likeliest Adelaide United win was 2-1 (7.23%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (10.59%). The actual scoreline of 2-0 was predicted with a 4.1% likelihood.
