Melbourne Victory makes the trip to Perth Glory in a blockbuster Hyundai A-League clash on Saturday.
Summary
Victory begins the run home with a visit to HBF Park for what is just its third and final league game in March.
It recorded a 2-1 win over Brisbane Roar in Round 22 in its final game before the international break.
Kosta Barbarouses, 29, scored a brace against his former club to move onto a personal-high 13 league goals this season.
Keisuke Honda and James Troisi set up the forward with their fifth and eighth assists of the Hyundai A-League campaign respectively.
Victory is third on the table with five league matches remaining, sitting a point behind Sydney FC and 10 adrift of Perth Glory.
After visiting Perth, Victory make the trip to Sydney, while its final three games of the league campaign are against the Central Coast Mariners, Adelaide United and Western Sydney Wanderers.
Victory is set to regain centre-back James Donachie from suspension, while Thomas Deng returns from Olyroos duty.
Player in focus
What they said
“It’s an exciting finish. What better way to start this with a game against Perth and Sydney. It’s great. We’re up for the challenge. We knew coming into this break that we had a big finish ahead of us and the general feel is more excitement. We’ve got a big six, seven weeks coming up with the league and AFC Champions League and this is what we work hard for, all pre-season, all season, to get to this point and now we’re really going to knuckle down and go for it.” – Victory captain Carl Valeri.
Last time
Hyundai A-League 2018/19 Round 18
Melbourne Victory 1-2 Perth Glory
Sunday, February 10, 2019
AAMI Park, Melbourne
After a tight first half, Glory went ahead through a Neil Kilkenny penalty and Diego Castro goal.
Barbarouses pulled one back for Victory, but it was unable to find an equaliser despite a late push.
As it stands
Head to head
Round 18, 2018/19: Victory 1-2 Glory at AAMI Park
Round 2, 2018/19: Victory 2-3 Glory at AAMI Park
Round of 32, 2018 FFA Cup: Glory 0-1 Victory at Dorrien Gardens
Round 24, 2017/18: Glory 1-0 Victory at HBF Park
Round 16, 2017/18: Victory 3-2 Glory at AAMI Park
Match details
Perth Glory v Melbourne Victory
HBF Park, Perth
Saturday, March 30, 2019
Kick-off: 10.00pm AEDT
Melbourne Victory squad: 1.Matthew ACTON (gk), 2.Storm ROUX, 3.Corey BROWN, 4.Keisuke HONDA, 5.Georg NIEDERMEIER, 6.Leigh BROXHAM, 7. Kenny ATHIU, 8. Terry ANTONIS, 9.Kosta BARBAROUSES, 10.James TROISI, 11.Ola TOIVONEN, 14. Thomas DENG, 15.Raul BAENA, 16.Josh HOPE, 17. James DONACHIE, 20.Lawrence THOMAS (gk), 21.Carl VALERI (c), 24. Elvis KAMSOBA
**two to be omitted**
Ins: 8. Terry ANTONIS (return from injury), 14. Thomas DENG (return from Olyroos duty), 17. James DONACHIE (return from suspension), 24. Elvis KAMSOBA (return from injury)
Outs: 19. Rahmat AKBARI, 25. Anthony LESIOTIS
Unavailable:
