Excellent with the bat and ball on the previous matchday, Melbourne Stars provided a solid display to take Brisbane Heat directly to the cleaners. A stroll in the park for Maxwells charges, they came out on top via a six-wicket win. With less than 24 hours to prepare for this upcoming contest, Melbourne Stars will be wary of fatigue creeping in to affect their overall play. As Nathan Coulter-Nile took the center stage last time out, MS will be hoping for more of the same from the play in subsequent matches. Slow off the blocks, Team Green fell behind in the opening stages, losing early wickets. However, Hilton Cartwright and Glenn Maxwell combined brilliantly for a fourth-wicket stand of 75 that helped propel their side to victory.
The “Red Devils” approach the duel with the “townspeople” not in the best morale. The day before, they lost a very important match in the Champions League to Leipzig with a score of 2:3 and ended their performance in this tournament. When a ticket to the playoffs after three victories at the start of the Champions League seemed to be in their pocket, Manchester United lost three matches in a row and were content only with the Europa League. This will hit the morale of players for sure. At the same time in the Premier League Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team played excellently in the last rounds. The Red Devils won four wins in a row, showing good performance. During this period they beat Everton (3:1), West Bromwich (1 0), Southampton (3:2) and West Ham (3:1). Note that three of these matches took place away. At home Manchester United have only a labor victory over the blackbirds with a minimal score. This is despite the fact that West Brom have the worst defense in the Premier League at the moment. This success is the only one so far for the red devils in their home arena in five matches in the current championship. At the same time, they lost at home to Crystal Palace (1:3), Tottenham (1:6) and even played poorly on the road to Arsenal (0:1). Only with “Chelsea” the match ended in a draw (0:0). Nevertheless, after successes in the last rounds Solskjaer’s wards rose to the sixth line in the standings. Now they are five points behind the leading Tottenham. We can say that Manchester United does not have personnel loses. Sergio Romero and Phil Jones are in the infirmary, but they haven’t played this season yet. Anthony Martial and Edinson Cavani have injuries and it will be decided on the day of the match if they are ready to play.
