Brisbane Roar entertain Newcastle Jets in the Australian A-League on Sunday morning as the hosts look to bounce back from a disappointing defeat last time out.
Craig Deans's side, on the other hand, have gone three games unbeaten and will be aiming to climb into the top half of the table over the weekend.
Match preview
The Suncorp Stadium outfit have made a good start to the new campaign, picking up 12 points from their opening six encounters to leave them lying in third place.
A shock 2-0 defeat on home soil to the division's new boys Macarthur in midweek was just Brisbane's second defeat of the season and left them trailing league leaders Central Coast Mariners by three points, albeit with a game in hand.
Warren Moon's men reached the playoffs in 2019-20, where they were defeated by Western United. Three points over the weekend could take the Roar to the top of the table, and they will be aiming to cement their status as one of the country's best sides by doing exactly that.
Brisbane have failed to lift the league crown since 2014, and a fourth A-League title would have been the objective at the start of the season.
A win on Sunday would send a statement of intent to their domestic rivals and renew the club's confidence that a place in the Grand Final is well within their grasp.
The Jets had a disastrous start to the 2020-21 campaign, losing their opening four league matches, including a 2-1 defeat to their upcoming opponents.
However, a victory over New Zealand outfit Wellington Phoenix on January 24 has transformed the club's fortunes.
Deans's men have picked up seven points from a possible nine in recent weeks to lift themselves off the foot of the table, rising to seventh in the league standings.
The McDonald Jones Stadium outfit narrowly missed out on the playoffs last season and will be looking to go one better this time around.
A win at the weekend would give them real hope of doing just that, and it would represent quite the turnaround from their struggles in the opening fixtures.
Brisbane Roar Australian A-League form: LWWWWL
Newcastle Jets Australian A-League form: LLLWDW
Team News
The Roar have no injury concerns coming into this one, but Moon could still make some changes to his starting XI after the 2-0 loss on Tuesday.
One man who is guaranteed to start, though, is star striker Dylan Wenzel-Halls. The 23-year-old has bagged five goals and provided two assists in his six league outings this term and will be crucial to his side's chances.
Newcastle Jets will be without Ben Kantarovski, with the defensive midfielder ruled out through injury for this one.
He is joined on the sidelines by versatile defender John Koutroumbis as the 22-year-old also remains on the treatment table.
Brisbane Roar possible starting lineup:
Young; Aldred, Gillesphey, Trewin; Brindell-South, Brown, O'Shea, Akbari; McDonald, Danzaki, Wenzel-Halls
Newcastle Jets possible starting lineup:
Duncan; O'Toole, Topor-Stanley, Jackson, Hoffman; Ugarkovic, Petratos, Thurgate; Najjarine, O'Donovan, Yuel
We say: Brisbane Roar 3-1 Newcastle Jets
Although Brisbane lost last time out, we fancy them to recover from that surprise result and pick up their fifth victory of the season on Sunday. Moon's charges should have too much quality for this Newcastle side, and the Roar could end the weekend at the top of the table.
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 Brisbane Roar win with a probability of 39.65%. A win for Newcastle Jets had a probability of 35.46% and a draw had a probability of 24.9%.
The most likely scoreline for a Brisbane Roar win was 2-1 with a probability of 8.64%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (8.4%) and 2-0 (6.22%). The likeliest Newcastle Jets win was 1-2 (8.1%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.66%). The actual scoreline of 0-0 was predicted with a 5.7% likelihood.
