A-League Betting: Melbourne Victory to win & BTTS looks the bet against Wellington Phoenix
Recommended bet: Melbourne Victory to Win & “Both Teams To Score” @ 7/4 (2.75) with bet365
Melbourne Victory welcome Wellington Phoenix to AAMI Park knowing that, should they avoid defeat, they will be assured of both a place in the A-League Finals Series semi-finals and in next season’s AFC Champions League second preliminary round.
A 1-0 defeat at Brisbane Roar last time out ensured that Melbourne Victory’s admittedly incredibly remote hopes of claiming the A-League Premiers’ Plate were finally extinguished and that the honor would instead go to Sydney FC.
In reality the defeat was no surprise, with Victory missing four first-team players due to international call-ups, including leading goalscorers Besart Berisha and Marco Rojas.
Even so, Victory still require no more than a single point from their remaining three A-League games in the regular season to be guaranteed their place alongside Sydney in the semi-finals of the Finals Series and they will expect to secure that against Phoenix.
For their part, despite a resounding 5-0 win at home to Newcastle Jets last week, Phoenix are five points adrift of Western Sydney Wanderers and what would be a place in the Elimination Finals. Those chances are slim, particularly with Wanderers currently in decent form, but a win at AAMI Park could yet make things interesting.
The head-to-head record between these two this season has seen each team convincingly win their home match, with Berisha and Rojas sharing five goals between them as Victory won 6-1 in late October, before Phoenix gained revenge with a 3-0 at the Westpac Stadium in January.
This looks like it could be another game that could feature a few goals, with there having been three goals or more in each of Phoenix’s last eight A-League matches.
Both Teams To Score (BTTS) has occurred in 83% of Victory’s home games in the A-League this season and in 73% of Phonenix’s matches on their travels.
With Victory having home advantage and being strongly fancied by the bookies to win this game at best odds of 11/20 (1.55), the best value option here could be in backing the home side with BTTS. That’s available at 7/4 (2.75) with bet365 and looks worth an interest.
