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In their first ever game as a football club as they play in their first ever Australian A League season, Auckland began with a victory last weekend and they now take on one of the strongest sides in the country, Sydney.
KICK-OFF DATE/TIME: Sunday 27th October, 2024: UK – 3:00am / Saturday 26th October, 2024: US ET – 11:00pm / US PT – 8:00pm
HOW TO WATCH/STREAM: UK – YouTube / US – ESPN / Australia – Paramount+
AUCKLAND TEAM NEWS: FULLY FIT
Auckland, after putting together their entire squad during the off-season, head into their second game with no injury issues or suspension concerns for this one so they will be able to name an unchanged eleven for this weekend.
PREDICTED XI (4-4-2): Paulsen; Sakai, Hall, Pijnaker, De Vries; Rogerson, Verstraete, Gallegos, Gillion; May, Brimmer
UNAVAILABLE:
QUESTIONABLE:
SYDNEY TEAM NEWS: COUPLE OF INJURIES
Sydney have a couple of injury issues as they make the trip across to New Zealand this weekend. The visitors are without defender Aaron Gurd as well as attacking midfielder Joseph Lacey.
PREDICTED XI (4-2-3-1): Redmayne; Grant, Matthews, Popovic, Courtney-Perkins; Sena, Caceres; Lolley, Ouahim, Douglas Costa; Klimala
UNAVAILABLE: Gurd (Injured), Lacey (Injured)
QUESTIONABLE:
AUCKLAND VS SYDNEY PREDICTION
Auckland have brought in some really impressive signings, most notably defensively with Alex Paulsen and Hiroki Sakai, but they remain a very young franchise that are just trying to develop some chemistry. They face a Sydney side that came from behind to win the Sydney derby last weekend against the Western Sydney Wanderers before then suffering a tight 2-1 loss to Sanfrecce Hiroshima in the AFC Cup group stages in midweek. Auckland will be solid and could well look to take advantage of Sydney’s potential fatigue.
AUCKLAND VS SYDNEY TIP: DOUBLE CHANCE – AUCKLAND TO WIN OR DRAW & UNDER 3.5 GOALS