Western United will prepare to do battle against Melbourne City once again this Saturday night; a fixture in which United has had a lot of joy in recent times.
The Green and Black has beaten City twice in a row and is currently the only A-League Men side to hold a two-match winning streak against last season’s champions.
Newcastle Jets is the only other team that has beaten City twice since the beginning of the 2020/21 campaign, and Western United will be out to make it a three-peat this weekend.
Take a look back at the last two encounters ahead of Saturday’s blockbuster meeting.
Thursday, April 1 2021: Western United 2-1 Melbourne City
There were no April Fool’s jokes from Western United last year, just a scintillating five-minute spell in the second half that proved the difference.
Craig Noone gave Melbourne City an early lead at AAMI Park, but United stayed in the game and kept knocking on the door until the equaliser came just after the hour mark.
It was fitting that the breakthrough would come from Lachie Wales – a recent arrival from City – who rose highest to score a rare headed goal from Besart Berisha’s knockdown.
The roles were reversed five minutes later for what proved to be the winning goal. Wales latched onto a ball down the right win and found Berisha in the box, who needed one touch to control and a second to swivel and shoot into the bottom corner off the post.
That was United’s first ever win against Melbourne City, and the Green and Black wouldn’t have to wait too long for the next one.
Saturday, December 4 2021: Melbourne City 0-1 Western United
The two sides met in Round 3 of the new season and both looking to assert themselves with a big early win against a Melbourne rival.
Both sides enjoyed spells of possession early on, but Dylan Wenzel-Halls struck the all-important goal 20 minutes in; a beautiful strike from the edge of the area after he was played through by Alessandro Diamanti.
Wales had a second disallowed for a foul later on in the first half and Connor Pain came close on a couple of occasions, while John Aloisi’s men were resolute in defence.
Leo Lacroix was immense at centre-back and Jamie Young made a number of goal-saving stops in goal to ensure United held onto the win to add positive early momentum at the beginning of the season.
