Sydney will host Newcastle Jets at the Allianz Stadium on Saturday in another round of the 2024-25 Australia A-League campaign. The home side have had mixed results in the league of late and will need to be more consistent in the final games of the regular season if they are to secure a spot in the playoffs.
They played out a 2-2 draw against league leaders Auckland in their last league outing, squandering a two-goal lead handed to them by Adrian Segecic before crashing out of the AFC Champions League Two on Tuesday following a 2-1 aggregate defeat to Singaporean side Lion City Sailors.
Newcastle Jets, meanwhile, remain hopeful of securing playoff football, although that now looks too little, too late. They enjoyed an emphatic return to winning ways last time out as they thrashed 10-man Central Coast Mariners 6-0 on home turf, featuring goals from four different players, including Eli Adam,s who netted a brace.
The visitors sit ninth in the league standings with 29 points and cannot afford to drop any more points if they are to finish in the top six at the end of the regular season.
The Sky Blues' latest result ended a run of back-to-back winless outings and they will be looking to kick on from that this weekend. They have lost just one of their last eight home games and will head into this one as favorites.
The Jets also saw their latest result snap a three-game winless run, and they will be keen to build on that here. They are, however, winless on their last four trips to the Allianz Stadium and could lose this one.
Prediction: Sydney 2-1 Newcastle Jets
Tip 1 - Result: Sydney to win
Tip 2 - Goals - Over/under 2.5 - Over 2.5 goals (Eight of the visitors' last 10 matches have produced more than 2.5 goals)
Tip 3 - Both teams to score: YES (Both sides have found the back of the net in five of the hosts' last seven matches)