It was the week we had been working towards for a while last weekend in the A-League as we hit on all four tips for a really profitable round of betting. We’ll be looking for another 4-0 week here as we preview Round 6 of the A-League and offer our betting tips below.
A-League Round 6 Betting Tips
Central Coast Mariners vs Sydney FC (Friday 7.50pm AEDT)
Central Coast are one of four teams who are yet to register a win in the 2017-18 A-League season, although they have three draws from five games so far. It’ll be another tough test for them here as they face table leaders Sydney FC. The Mariners held on for a 0-0 draw last weekend against the Roar in what was a pretty scrappy affair.
Sydney FC proved their class in Round 5 as they downed the undefeated Melbourne City to leapfrog them on the table and take up their rightful spot at the top. They are now 4-1-0 this season and are still yet to concede a goal away from home in two games.
Former Mariner David Carney put the icing on a great game the last time these two sides met, scoring in the 76th minute to give the Sky Blues a 3-2 advantage. Surprisingly, for the best team in the league, there is still a bit of meat left on the bone for them given they are away from home, we think $1.62 is a good price to load up on here.
TIP: Sydney to win - $1.62 at Sportsbet
Adelaide United vs Newcastle Jets (Saturday 5.35pm AEDT)
The Newcastle train rolled on last weekend as they collected their third win of the season in a 3-0 win over the Phoenix to move to 3-2-0 so far. They currently sit third on the table behind only Melbourne City and Sydney FC and are the highest scoring team in the competition with 13 goals through their five games.
Adelaide United had the difficult task of travelling to Perth last weekend and succumb to the Roar 1-0. They arguably had more of the ball and created more chances in the match, but could only turn their 18 shots into 1 attempt on goal, which has been their problem early in the season. With a 1-2-2 record, they sit just above the winless teams in 6th position and will be looking for a strong home performance here.
The last two times these teams have met have ended in the same result, a 1-0 win to Adelaide. Newcastle’s offence wasn’t what it was last season, however, and with the new and improved attack under new manager Ernie Merrick, we think the Jets are stiff to be $2.88 underdogs here. Look for them to be able to hold onto at least a draw.
TIP: Newcastle Jets (draw no bet) - $2.15 at Ladbrokes
Melbourne Victory vs Brisbane Roar (Saturday 7.50pm AEDT)
Who would have thought that in Round 6 of the A-League season that both Brisbane and Melbourne would still be hunting their first win of the season? That’s the case this year, albeit after some great performances by both teams in the opening five rounds. Melbourne did well to hold on to fight back and draw 1-1 with the Wanderers on Monday night after Mitch Austin picked up a red card in the 24th minute.
Brisbane also drew in Round 5, a 0-0 affiar with the Mariners that they will be desperate to bounce back from and claim their first win of the season. The Roar have scored just 5 goals on the season so far, which is tied for the fewest in the league, not what they were expecting after signing Serie-A veteran striker Massimo Maccarone at the start of the season.
It’s a daunting prospect for the Roar, who havenet claimed a victory in Melbourne for nearly four years. The two team’s last meeting resulted in a 5-1 decimation job in favour of the Victory and while both teams are winless so far this season, Melbourne have played harder opponents, already having to face arguably the best four of the best teams in the league in WSW, Melbourne City, Sydney and Adelaide. Back them to claim their first win here.
TIP: Melbourne Victory to win - $1.80 at Sportsbet
Melbourne City vs Western Sydney Wanderers (Sunday 7pm AEDT)
Melbourne City looked dangerous at times in their 1-0 loss to Sydney last weekend but ultimately the Sky Blue defence was just too much for Melbourne to handle. We think they will be much more competitive against the benchmark in the A-League when star striker Bruno Fornaroli returns from injury but until then, Sydney take the early season bragging rights.
The Wanderers missed a golden opportunity to announce themselves amongst the top contenders in the league last weekend as they could only muster a 1-1 draw against a Melbourne Victory team that had ten men for the majority of the game. Their defence still looks as solid as ever but with just three goals in their last three games, they need to find offence quick if they want to stop drawing games and start winning.
This is one of the rare fixtures that the Wanderers are involved in that generally produces lots of goals. 27 goals have been scored in the team’s last 7 fixtures and with both squads playing good defence this year the total goals line has dropped.
TIP: Total goals OVER 2.5 - $1.76 at CrownBet