Perth Glory narrowly lost 1-0 away to Macarther last weekend, failing to build off their 2-1 victory over Western United with another three points.

After a scoreless first half, the hosts’ Bachana Arabuli scored the game’s only goal in the 71st minute to hand the Glory their fifth league loss of the season.

The team led by Ruben Zadkovich finished dead last in the A-League last year, and after seven games this year, they are still there. However, with a victory over the Wellington Phoenix, they might move up to tenth place.

Perth Glory will welcome a return to home ground where they are unbeaten in each of their last three games after winning just two of their 19 away games in 2022.

With four losses during this stretch, the Glory have lost all five of their previous meetings with the Phoenix, and the Yellow Army appear to be in better shape going into Friday’s game.

In fact, Ufuk Talay’s team earned all three points last weekend by defeating Adelaide United 3-1 at home with 10 men on the field. The hosts were led by goals from Oskar Zawada, Bozhidar Kraev, and Yan Sasse.

The only New Zealand-based club competing in the Australian top division, Wellington Phoenix, is currently sixth in the standings after eight games, six points behind the league-leading Melbourne City, with whom they will square off in their opening match of 2023.

The Yellow Army have had no trouble scoring goals thus far this season, as they have done so in each of their eight A-League games and amassed a total of 16 goals, which is only bettered at this point in the season by Central Coast Mariners’ (18) total goals.

Wellington have failed to win each of their last three games on the road, however, so they will be keen to turn their fortunes around on their travels with a victory against a Perth Glory side whom they last lost against in August 2020.

1×2 Betting Odds

Following their victory the last time they played, Wellington Phoenix enters Friday’s match in a better mood than Perth Glory, and the visitors will be thought of as the slight favourites.

It’s possible that the Yellow Army will outscore their opponents to win at Macedonia Park despite the hosts’ desperation to get all three points as they try to move up the table.

Perth Glory, the home side, are not the favourites to win this with odds @ 2.97.

But Wellington Phoenix are only slightly favourites with odds @ 2.45.

The possibility of a stalemate stands @ 3.77.

Total goals over/under

The odds that the total number of goals score will be over 2.5, stands @ 1.80.

While the odds that the total number of goals will be under 2.5, stands @ 2.19.

So the betting market believes that this game has a few goals in it, where result could go either way.