Adelaide United vs Central Coast Mariners Prediction & Betting Tips - A-League

Prediction published on 25/04/2023, 18:00  by Steve Ashfield in Football Predictions

It's the final set of games in the regular season of the A-League and there's so much to play for. Second placed Adelaide United host Central Coast Mariners who are in third place. Both are guaranteed their place in the play-offs but second position sees a team go straight into the semi-finals. Adelaide have a point lead over the Mariners and fourth placed WS Wanderers. A win for Adelaide will confirm their runners-up spot behind Melbourne City who host WS Wanderers in their final game of the regular season. Adelaide come into this game having gone three league games without a win. They should have won last week though when 2-1 and 3-2 up at Perth Glory but needing a late goal to grab a 4-4 draw. If Adelaide want to do well in the play-offs they will need to defend better with 42 goals conceded in their 25 A-League matches this season. They've scored 52 though and 11 of their last 12 games have seen both teams get on the scoresheet. Home form has seen them win only two of the last five with all but one of the last six seeing both teams score.

Central Coast Mariners need a win here if they want to finish in the top two. Even that might not be enough if WS Wanderers were to win their final game and by a wider margin as both sides have a +17 goal difference. The Mariners are ending the regular season well and are unbeaten in their last four league games. Their most recent fixture saw them come from behind to win 3-1 at Newcastle Jets. That made it three wins out of four and 11 goals scored. Away form has been a worry with one point from three games but the last two have been won with six goals put past their opponents. 11 of their last 14 games have seen both teams score and we go for that stat to come up again in this fixture.