The Hyundai A-League Finals continue this weekend with two massive matchups. Adelaide United and Macarthur FC won their elimination finals on the weekend to advance to the semi-finals against Sydney FC and Melbourne City respectively! We have a full preview and betting tips for both of the big matchups below.
A-League Semi Finals Betting Tips
Sydney FC vs Adelaide United
Netstrata Jubilee Stadium, Saturday 19th June 7.05pm (AEST)
Sydney FC finished 2nd on the table at the end of the regular season with a 13-8-5 record, winning their last five games of the year to earn the coveted week off in the first round of finals. They are arguably the form side of the competition at the moment, having racked up a 10-1 combined goal aggregate across those last five games of the season. They will face off against Adelaide United, who captured what could only be described as a lucky win on the road against Brisbane Roar in the elimination final.
Adelaide scored two early goals courtesy of Tomi Juric in the 15th and 19th minute of the game. From there, they went into lock down and were peppered for the rest of the match, with the Roar maintaining 63% possession and firing off 24 shot attempts to just 10 for Adelaide. While they will no doubt be happy with the win, there were some worrying signs and they will need to be a lot better offensively if they want to compete with Sydney this Saturday night.
Sydney start as strong favourites here and it’s hard to bet against them with the added advantage of the extra week off and the home field advantage. They have allowed just one goal in their last five games, while Adelaide United have managed to find the back of the net just once in four of their last six games. I think the Sydney defence should be much too good for Adelaide here and could see them getting another shutout win.
Sydney win to nil
Melbourne City vs Macarthur FC
AAMI Park, Sunday 20th June 4.05pm (AEST)
Melbourne City claimed their first premiership ever this season, finishing atop the A-League table with a 15-4-7 record. They will now attempt to win their first ever championship, as their finals campaign gets underway on Sunday afternoon from AAMI Park. They had a bit of a rough finish to the season, but that could be put down to the fact that they had top spot wrapped up with a few rounds to go, so would have been in cruise control.
Macarthur battled out a 0-0 draw in regular time of their elimination final against the Mariners on the weekend but scored two goals in extra time to send them through to the semi-final in their first season in the Hyundai A-League. It’s an extremely impressive start for Macarthur, and a berth in the Grand Final would greatly exceed all expectations of the inaugural season for the Bulls.
Rest vs rust is the key factor here. Not only have the Melbourne City core not competed in a game for the last two weeks, but they also had a pretty cruisy finish to the regular season, winning just one of their last five games and scoring just 2 goals in their last three. If an upset is to happen across these two games, I think Macarthur have the form and potential to shake things up here. Back them with the double chance in regular time.
Macarthur double chance
