Melbourne Victory’s Men and Women teams are preparing for two huge Melbourne Derby matches at AAMI Park this weekend.
Tony Popovic’s men are travelling back from Japan to face City on Saturday night after a gruelling 120 minutes of action against Vissel Kobe.
Robbie Kruse and Chris Ikonomidis succumbed to injury during the match but their statuses are yet to be confirmed as they fly back to Melbourne for assessment.
Important pair Rai Marchan and Matt Spiranovic made their returns from lengthy injury layoffs in the 3-4 loss and will add plenty of class to the line-up.
Matt Acton played his first minutes of the season in goals and made multiple impressive saves against a talented Vissel Kobe attack.
After taking a 22-man squad to Japan, Popovic will have a bigger pool of players to select from back home in the league.
Kyra Cooney-Cross will return from suspension for Sunday’s Liberty A-League Preliminary Final against City.
Melina Ayres made her first start of the season in the Semi-Final win, scoring the match-winner and providing a constant threat.
Amy Jackson also returned to the starting line-up.
Men’s squad v Melbourne City – Saturday 7:45pm AEDT (AAMI Park)
#1 Matt Acton
#2 Jason Geria
#3 Jason Davidson
#4 Rai Marchan
#5 Matt Spiranovic
#6 Leigh Broxham
#7 Chris Ikonomidis
#8 Josh Brillante (C)
#9 Francesco Margiotta
#10 Robbie Kruse
#11 Ben Folami
#13 Birkan Kirdar
#14 Jay Barnett
#15 Aaron Anderson
#16 Stefan Nigro
#17 Brendan Hamill
#18 Nick D’Agostino
#19 Luka Prso
#20 Ivan Kelava
#21 Roderick Miranda
#22 Jake Brimmer
#23 Marco Rojas
#24 Nishan Velupillay
#25 Luis Lawrie-Lattanzio
#26 Lleyton Brooks
#27 Zaydan Bello
Marko Bulic
Women’s squad v Melbourne City – Sunday 4:05pm AEDT (AAMI Park)
#1 Casey Dumont
#2 Tiffany Eliadis
#3 Claudia Bunge
#4 Emma Robers
#5 Courtney Nevin
#7 Kyra Cooney-Cross
#8 Alana Murphy
#9 Catherine Zimmerman
#10 Alex Chidiac
#11 Harriet Withers
#13 Polly Doran
#14 Melina Ayres
#15 Amy Jackson
#16 Paige Zois
#17 Maja Markovski
#19 Lia Privitelli (C)
#20 Melissa Maizels
#22 Francesca Iermano
#25 Brooke Hendrix
#30 MelindaJ Barbieri
#40 Sophia Varley