After getting back on the winners-list against Western United, our boys head up to Queensland to face lowly Brisbane Roar who managed to scrape a win against Western Sydney on New Years' Day.
Despite Brisbane's inferior ladder position, this looms as yet another danger game for us as we look to build momentum in the hope of holding onto second spot, let alone attempting to keep our minimal chances of catching Sydney at the summit alive.
With our Olyroos representatives still away on international duty, you can expect to see a similar lineup to last weekend's. The obvious omission, however, will be Harrison Delbridge, who was harshly sent off last time out and needs to be replaced. Whilst Richard Windbichler immediately comes to mind, match fitness looms as an issue for the big Austrian. Alternatively, Erick Mombaerts could look to the talented and versatile Josh Brillante to fill the void in central defense as he did for round four's match against Wellington.
Our most recent match against the Roar was one to forget as we handed them their first win of the season in embarrassing fashion back in Round 6.
Danger-men for the opposition include versatile midfielders Brad Inman and Jay O'Shea, as well as top goal scorer Roy O'Donovan, who certainly did us some damage last time out by scoring a second-half hat-trick.
If you exclude the last fifteen minutes of the match against Western United, our performance was fantastic and City fans deservedly go into this game with a reasonable amount of optimism. A solid defensive display meant Western United hardly posed a threat whilst up the other end our passing was slick, the high pressing was very effective and most importantly, we scored three first-half goals to put the game beyond our opponents' reach.
If our attack fires the way it did against Western United, combined with a more solid approach defensively, I can't see how Brisbane get a result against us.
Final Score Prediction: Brisbane Roar 1 - 3 Melbourne City
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