Melbourne Victory will travel to Ironbark Fields to take on Western United for an early Sunday kick-off.
Joe Palatsides’ team’s sensational run of form will face a major obstacle this Sunday, taking on a red-hot Western United outfit.
The game will kick-off at the unusual time of 10am, due to the afternoon’s A-League Men’s semi-final against Wellington Phoneix.
Victory’s VPL team will be hunting a seventh consecutive win in the clash with Western, having most recently picked up three points against Kingston City.
That meeting came at The Grange Reserve, where a superb first-half performance saw Victory head into the break with a 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Alex Menelaou and Adem Duratović.
Despite a late resurgence from the hosts, Victory were able to see out the remainder of the game, securing a 2-1 win.
Whilst the concerning pattern of failing to keep clean sheets continued, the attacking threat posed by Joe Palatsides’ team have meant the results have continued to go their way.
This week’s opponents though have demonstrated plenty of attacking threat of their own in recent weeks.
Western United have won their previous two games with a cumulative score of 10-0, first putting seven past Langwarrin SC, before a commanding 3-0 win against Bulleen Lions.
Max Bisetto scored three of the goals across those two games for Western and will likely be a major threat on Sunday morning.
Back-to-back wins have seen Western climb inside the top four on the VPL1 ladder and very much within striking distance of a top-two position.
The two top-scoring teams in VPL1 clashing with so much on the line suggests goals are almost an inevitability.
The most recent league meetings between the teams came in the 2022 season, when both were in the third tier of Victorian football, with each side claiming one win against the other.
A huge clash on a massive day for the club, Victory will require a high quality performance if they are to continue their winning run.
