Melbourne Victory vs Melbourne City Betting Tips & Preview

Victory kick things off as the defending league champions, having defeated Newcastle Jets 1-0 in last season’s Grand Final after having knocked out the then defending champions and strong favourites Sydney FC at the semi-final stage.  It was some achievement for a team that only finished 4th in the regular season, some 23 points off top spot.

City finished last season in 3rd spot (two points better off than Victory), but lost 2-1 away to the Jets in the semi-finals, despite taking a first-half lead.

There have been a number of comings and goings with the Victory squad during the off-season, with key players such as Leroy George (who was the A-League’s top player for assists last season with 13), veteran striker Besart Berisha (the A-League’s all-time highest goalscorer) and defender Rhys Williams.

They have made a number of new signings too of course, the most high-profile of which are Ola Toivonen and Keisuke Honda, both of whom not only featured at World Cup 2018 in Russia for Sweden and Japan respectively, but both of whom scored in the finals.

City lost several key players themselves, including captain Michael Jakobsen, goalkeeper Dean Bouzanis, young Socceroo Daniel Arzani, marquee Marcin Budzinski and Oliver Bozanic. 

They have recruited well though, with the likes of defender Ritchie De Laet on loan from Aston Villa, midfielders Anthony Caceres (on loan from Manchester City), Riley McGree (on loan from Club Brugge), Lachlan Wales (Central Coast Mariners) and Rostyn Griffiths (Pakhtakor in Uzbekistan) coming in.

In the three league meetings between the teams last season, each of them ended in an away win, with Victory winning twice and City once.  Indeed, six of the last seven games between these two in all competitions have gone the way of the visiting team.

On Saturday the ‘Match Result’ betting odds has Victory available at 2.35 with Unibet* to start their title defence with a win, the draw at 3.55 with Pointsbet* and City at 2.90 also with bet365*.  The draw looks the pick there though and Correct Score punters might be tempted with 1-1 at 7.00 with bet365*.

* Odds correct at the time of writing

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