Melbourne City FC will be looking to bounce back from Thursday’s loss to Western United when it takes on Wellington on Monday night.
City were looking good to record a seventh win in a row thanks to a Craig Noone opener on Thursday night, but despite recording triple the shots, it was Western who took the points.
Good to see Nooney picked up right where he left off last match! 😎
📹 @FOXFOOTBALL#CmonCity | #WUNvMCY | #ALeague pic.twitter.com/wEfrfHL3sL
— Melbourne City FC (@MelbourneCity) April 1, 2021
The clash
This will be the first time City come up against Wellington this season, currently the only team the Club is yet to face.
Although ultimately the final whistle blew with nothing to show for it, City still dominated large parts of Thursday’s match, as it has consistently done over the past couple of months.
Two quick counter-attacks caught City off-guard and as Patrick Kisnorbo said in his post-match press conference, in professional sport you just can’t afford to switch off.
With Nuno Reis now having a full 90 minutes under his belt after missing our clash against Wanderers with a groin injury, City’s defence will be looking to get back to the form that saw it record four consecutive clean sheets prior to Reis’ injury.
City’s front three of Craig Noone, Jamie Maclaren and Andrew Nabbout will also be looking to get back to the form from that period after a few uncharacteristic missed opportunities against Western.
𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐕 𝐖𝐒𝐖
Nabbout ⚽🎯
Maclaren ⚽
Noone ⚽⚽🎯Is this the best front three in the @aleague? 🤔#CmonCity pic.twitter.com/yFpUlZ4BTE
— Melbourne City FC (@MelbourneCity) March 27, 2021
Given there’s a short turnaround between these fixtures, Kisnorbo could look to make some changes to his XI come Monday night, especially given there was just one substitution made on Thursday.
In line to see some more action could be the likes of Stefan Colakovski, Marco Tilio and Adrian Luna – who was the one substitute to see the pitch last time out.
Team News
Head Coach Patrick Kisnorbo has made two additions to his squad while at this stage there are no outs.
Defender Kerrin Stokes and attacker Raphael Borges Rodrigues have both been promoted to the extended squad for this fixture.
Melbourne City FC squad
1.Tom GLOVER (gk), 2.Scott GALLOWAY, 4.Nuno REIS, 7.Rostyn GRIFFITHS, 9.Jamie MACLAREN, 10.Florin BERENGUER-BOHRER, 11.Craig NOONE, 13.Nathaniel ATKINSON, 14.Naoki TSUBAKI, 15.Andrew NABBOUT, 16.Taras GOMULKA, 17.Stefan COLAKOVSKI, 18.Connor METCALFE, 19.Ben GARUCCIO, 20.Adrian LUNA, 22.Curtis GOOD, 23.Marco TILIO, 33.Matthew SUTTON (gk), 35.Raphael BORGES RODRIGUES, 36.Kerrin STOKES.
**2 to be omitted**
In: 35.Raphael BORGES RODRIGUES (promoted), 36.Kerrin STOKES (promoted).
Out: Nil
Unavailable: 3.Scott JAMIESON (calf), 8.Aiden O’NEILL (back).
What was said?
“I think it was pretty evident that we created enough chances to win the game (on Thursday), sometimes they go in, sometimes they don’t. The pleasing thing is that we were able to create plenty of quality chances in great areas – on another day, it’s a different result but I’m really pleased with what the boys have been doing so far and the way they are going about it.”
-Patrick Kisnorbo
Match Details
Wellington Phoenix v Melbourne City FC
WIN Stadium
Monday 5 April, 7.10pm kick-off
