Melbourne Victory makes the trip to Sydney FC in Round 6 of the Hyundai A-League on Sunday.
Summary
Victory visits Jubilee Stadium on the back of a 1-1 draw against the Wellington Phoenix.
Ola Toivonen’s second-half equaliser earned Victory a point as the Swedish star made club history.
The 33-year-old set a record by becoming the fastest player to score 20 goals for Victory, needing just 32 games to achieve the feat.
Toivonen has starred to begin the season, contributing three goals and two assists in five games.
Victory will be without a host of players for the trip to Sydney due to international duty.
Thomas Deng (Olyroos), Storm Roux (New Zealand), Elvis Kamsoba (Burundi) and Kenny Athiu (South Sudan) will miss the clash.
Victory has lost its previous two matches against Sydney FC, but had won the three encounters between the clubs before that.
Player in focus
What they said
“Five games, five points is not where we want to be, I suppose nobody needs me to tell them that and off the back of some home games as well. This weekend, whether it’s Sydney or not, maybe it could be a time for us to send a clear message – undermanned, you could call it backs against the wall a little bit away from home to go and get a result, to go and get three points potentially and send a clear message to everybody and to our fans that it’s not just a transition year or anything like that, (but) that we are passionate and wanting to win games for our members and supporters.” – Victory stalwart Leigh Broxham.
“It’s a massive game for us, for them and the two sets of fans. As players, it’s one of the best games to play in and I think they’ll come out firing so we just need to play our game to build our momentum to set up the rest of the season.” – Sydney FC left-back Michael Zullo.
Last time
Hyundai A-League 2018/19 Semi Final
Sydney FC 6-1 Melbourne Victory
Sunday, May 12, 2019
Jubilee Stadium, Sydney
Victory’s Championship defence came to an end in a Semi Final loss to Sydney last season.
An Adam le Fondre brace and goals from Aaron Calver, Alex Brosque and Milos Ninkovic and a Broxham own goal lifted the Sky Blues before Toivonen’s late strike.
As it stands
Head to head
Semi Final, 2018/19: Sydney 6-1 Victory at Jubilee Stadium
Round 24, 2018/19: Sydney 2-1 Victory at the SCG
Round 16, 2018/19: Victory 2-1 Sydney at AAMI Park
Round 5, 2018/19: Sydney 1-2 Victory at Jubilee Stadium
Semi Final, 2017/18: Sydney 2-3 Victory (aet) at Allianz Stadium
Match details
Sydney FC v Melbourne Victory
Jubilee Stadium, Sydney
Sunday, November 17, 2019
Kick-off: 6.30pm AEDT
Melbourne Victory squad: 3.Corey BROWN, 4.James DONACHIE, 6.Leigh BROXHAM, 8.Jakob POULSEN, 10.Robbie KRUSE, 11.Ola TOIVONEN (c), 13.Birkan KIRDAR, 16.Josh HOPE, 18.Migjen BASHA, 19.Ben CARRIGAN, 20.Lawrence THOMAS (gk), 21.Adama TRAORE, 22.Kristijan DOBRAS, 24.Anthony LESIOTIS, 25.Brandon LAUTON, 26.Jay BARNETT, 30.Matthew SUTTON (gk), 50.Brendan WHITE (gk)
Ins: 10.Robbie KRUSE (returning from injury), 13.Birkan KIRDAR (returning from international duty), 26.Jay BARNETT (returning from international duty), 30.Matthew SUTTON (gk) (promoted)
Outs: 2.Storm ROUX (international duty), 7.Kenny ATHIU (international duty), 14.Thomas DENG (international duty), 17.Elvis KAMSOBA (international duty)
Unavailable: 1.Matt ACTON (shoulder), 5.Tim HOOGLAND (quad), 9.Andrew NABBOUT (hamstring)
