The 20th round of A-League will serve us with a matchup between Newcastle Jets and Adelaide United. The match will take place at McDonald Jones Stadium, home of the Jets.
Newcastle Jets are currently 7th in the league, with an overall record of 6-4-9 and 22 points, which means they are only 6 points short of reaching the playoffs. Looking at their recent matches, Jets are undefeated in the last 3 games, where they faced off against WS Wanderers (1:5), Wellington Phoenix (1:1) and most recently Melbourne City (3:1). With those results, Newcastle Jets are 3-1-1 in the last 5 games played in all competitions.
The most recent match they played took place on February 19th, when they got humiliated by Kashima (4:1). Despite a high defeat in AFC qualifications finals, Newcastle Jets still have impressive results in the A-League.
The visiting side today, Adelaide United are currently 4th in A-League with an 8-6-5 record and 30 points. With that, they are 8 points in front of Newcastle Jets, but still 16 points behind the league leaders Perth Glory. Looking at their recent league matches, Adelaide won against Mariners (2:1), Brisbane Roar (4:3), drew against Perth Glory (0:0), Melbourne City (1:1) and suffered a humiliating defeat against WS Wanderers (1:3).
The last time these two sides met, on December 30th, it was Adelaide who celebrated a win (1:2), however, I do not believe we will be looking at the same result today. Due to the recent performances of Adelaide, when they failed to defeat Melbourne City and got humiliated by WS Wanderers at home (1:3), it's safe to say they are not in a great spot. While Adelaide are still 4th in the league, they can easily drop down the ladder if they don't improve. On the other side, we have got the Newcastle Jets, who have been improving since their bad run at the start of January (0-1-4). The Jets seemingly turned on their jets and started winning games. This now puts them close to reaching the ultimate goal, the playoff spot. If they win today, their goal will be only 3 more points away, so we can expect them to step up and defeat Adelaide in a match they can not afford to walk away with 0 points.
Prediction: Newcastle Jets to win
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