AAMI Park will host a derby-day A-League Grand Final when Melbourne City take on rivals Melbourne Victory this Saturday at the stadium that both teams call home.
Hearts will be looking for their second Championship title to go with 2021's triumph, while the Big V will be hoping to go one step further after losing last year's final.
Match preview
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Aurelio Vidmar's Melbourne City finished second during the regular season, missing out on the crown by five points, but they have another chance at silverware after beating Western United to reach the Grand Final.
In Saturday's semi-final second leg, left-back Aziz Behich netted his team's only goal as Hearts managed to hold United to a 1-1 draw that sent them through with a 4-1 aggregate victory.
That stalemate extended Vidmar's side's impressive unbeaten run to eight matches, and with five wins in that stretch, as well as just one defeat from their last 13 games, they will be confident of securing the trophy this weekend.
However, it is notable that Saturday's nominal hosts have failed to beat Victory in any of the last seven meetings between the Melbourne clubs, and after seeing their team lose three consecutive derbies in 2024, including a 3-2 penalty shootout defeat in last year's Elimination Finals, fans may be worried.
On the other hand, City have only tasted defeat once at AAMI Park in 2025, and they could be bolstered by the familiarity of being the home side in their home stadium this weekend.
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Meanwhile, Arthur Diles's Victory qualified for the post-season Finals Series by ending the regular season in fifth and made it to the final with an impressive win over A-League Premiership winners, Auckland FC, in their semi-final.
The Big V lost 1-0 in the first-leg against the Black Knights, but two quickfire second-half goals from Zinedine Machbach and Bruno Fornaroli stunned their opponents in the second leg and sent their side through 2-1 winners on aggregate.
Despite their commendable result last time out, that triumph was just the third in Diles's men's last six games, and it would be fair to say that their opponents have the upper hand in terms of momentum going into this clash.
Victory have enjoyed the better of their recent face-offs with their neighbours, but the manager will be keen to remind his players to stay focused considering that they surrendered the lead that Machbach and Clarismario Rodrigues gave them in their 2-2 draw against Hearts back in February.
In that same vein, Victory will be driven by the experience of losing 3-1 in the 2024 Grand Final against Central Coast Mariners, a match in which they took the lead before conceding a stoppage-time equaliser to take the game into extra time, and eventually a third beyond the 120-minute mark.
Team News
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City's second-leg goalscorer Aziz Behich should start at left-back this weekend, and between him and Nathaniel Atkinson on the opposite flank, centre-backs German Ferreyra and Kai Trewin will be protecting Patrick Beach between the sticks.
Up top, striker Max Caputo should be supported by Marco Tilio and Yonatan Cohen, who was a standout performer against Western United, out wide.
As for Victory, they could be missing a number of attacking players on Saturday, including Zinedine Machbach, Nishan Velupillay and Daniel Arzani.
The trio were taken off with injuries in the second leg against Auckland, and if they are unavailable, Reno Piscopo, Alexander Badolato and Jing Lual could replace them in the XI.
Elsewhere, captain and centre-back Brendan Hamill will miss out as he is in the early stages of recovering from an anterior cruciate ligament injury he picked up in the first leg of the semi-final.
Melbourne City possible starting lineup:
Beach; Atkinson, Ferreyra, Trewin, Behich; Ugarkovic; Cohen, Lopane, Kuen, Tilio; Caputo
Melbourne Victory possible starting lineup:
Duncan; Rawlins, Miranda, Lachlan, Clarismario; Teague, Valadon; Lual, Badolato, Piscopo; Fornaroli
We say: Melbourne City 2-1 Melbourne Victory
City are in better form ahead of this clash and their record at AAMI Park has been impressive, so expect to see them put in a strong performance this weekend.
That being said, Victory showed great character to come from behind against the regular season's strongest team in the semi-final, and they could pose a threat to their Melbourne rivals on Saturday.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
