It’s shaping up to be a Friday night classic at AAMI Park. Catch yourself up on who’s in form and where the game will be won ahead of tonight’s clash.
Head-to-head: Victory v Roar
- Overall record: 13 wins, 8 draws, 15 defeats. 48 goals for, 47 goals against.
- Brisbane are undefeated in their last four matches against the Victory (W2, D2).
- The largest winning margin between the sides is 5-0. The Roar have won by that scoreline not once, but twice.
- The most common scoreline is a 1-0 Melbourne Victory win.
- There is an average of 2.64 goals in Victory-Roar games.
- Only once in 38 meetings have the Victory & Roar played a scoreless draw. The match came in Round 27 last season – the last time the Roar travelled to AAMI Park.
FUN FACT: Neither side have gone on to win after conceding first this season.
Last five meetings
- Roar 1-1 Victory – October 7, 2016 at Suncorp Stadium
- Roar 2-1 Victory – April 15, 2016 at Suncorp Stadium
- Victory 0-0 Roar – April 9, 2016 at AAMI Park
- Roar 5-0 Victory – March 12, 2016 at Suncorp Stadium
- Victory 4-0 Roar – January 15, 2016 at AAMI Park
Brisbane Roar at AAMI Park
- Record: 4 wins, 5 draws, 8 defeats, 20 goals for, 29 goals against.
- The Victory have kept a clean sheet in their last three home matches against the Roar.
- Brisbane have won just one of their last 12 matches at the venue (D4, L7). The Roar’s last win at AAMI Park came in January 2014 with a 3-0 win.
In form
- Besart Berisha leads the Hyundai A-League goalscoring chart. The Albanian and forward partner Marco Rojas are the top two players in the league for combined goals and assists.
- Jamie Maclaren has attempted the second-most shots in the competition (40). Nobody has had more shots on target than the Roar #9.
- Roar Vice-captain Jade North cracked the tonne for clearances last weekend and is the only player to have done so this season.
- Rojas and James Troisi are both in the league’s top three for assists while only two players have created more chances this season than Brisbane’s Thomas Broich.
- Captain Matt McKay has completed the second-most passes across the competition at 74.3% accuracy. Broich and Thomas Kristensen are also included in the Top 20.
Key matchup
Stopping the threat of the Victory’s potent and in-form attack will be priority number one for the visitors. Besart Berisha has passed the all-time goal-scoring record and flown to the top of the charts for this season in recent weeks, buoyed by a string of strong perfromances from James Troisi and the ever-dangerous Marco Rojas.
Brisbane’s back four have shown in the opening 14 rounds that they are more than capable of nulling the most dangerous front-lines in the league and they will have to be at their best against an in-form Victory side who enjoy playing at AAMI Park.
Melbourne Victory v Brisbane Roar
Friday, 13 January, AAMI Park, 6:50pm
Melbourne Victory squad: 2.Jason GERIA, 4.Nick ANSELL, 5.Daniel GEORGIEVSKI, 6.Leigh BROXHAM, 7.Marco ROJAS, 8.Besart BERISHA, 9.Max BEISTER, 10.James TROISI, 11.Mitch AUSTIN, 13.Oliver BOZANIC, 14.Fahid BEN KHALFALLAH, 16.Rashid MAHAZI, 17.James DONACHIE, 20.Lawrence THOMAS (gk), 21.Carl VALERI (c), 22.Stefan NIGRO, 23.Jai INGHAM, 40.Matt ACTON (gk) **two to be omitted**
Ins: 9.Max BEISTER (promoted), 16.Rashid MAHAZI (promoted), 22.Stefan NIGRO (promoted)
Outs: 15.Alan BARO (suspended – 1 week)
Unavailable: 27.Alastair BRAY (shoulder – 3-4 months)
Brisbane Roar FC squad: 1.Michael THEO (gk), 3.Luke DEVERE, 4.Daniel BOWLES, 5.Corey BROWN, 7.Thomas KRISTENSEN, 8.Jacob PEPPER, 9.Jamie MACLAREN, 11.Tommy OAR, 13.Jade NORTH, 15.ARANA, 16.Nathan KONSTANDOPOULOS, 17. Matt MCKAY (c), 19.Jack HINGERT, 21.Jamie YOUNG (gk), 22.Thomas BROICH, 23.Dimitri PETRATOS, 26.Nick D’AGOSTINO, 28.Brandon BORRELLO **two to be omitted**
Ins: 16.Nathan KONSTANDOPOULOS (promoted), 26.Nick D’AGOSTINO (promoted)
Outs: Nil
Unavailable: 10.Brett HOLMAN (knee – 1-2 weeks)
