Date: Wednesday May 21
Kick-off (AEST): 8.00pm
Venue: Telstra Dome
TV coverage: Fox Sports 1, Live
Previous results:
Melbourne Victory 2 Chunnam Dragons 0, March 12 2008, Telstra Dome
Chonburi FC 3 Melbourne Victory 1, March 19 2008, Bangkok
Melbourne Victory 3 Gamba Osaka 4, April 9 2008, Telstra Dome
Gamba Osaka 2 Melbourne Victory 0, April 23 2008, Expo 70 Stadium, Osaka
Chunnam Dragons 1 Melbourne Victory 1, May 7 2008, Gwangyang
Chonburi FC 1 Gamba Osaka 1, March 12 2008, Bangkok
Chonburi FC 3 Melbourne Victory 1, March 19 2008, Bangkok
Chunnam Dragons 1 Chonburi FC 0, April 9 2008, Dragon Dungeon, Gwangyang
Chonburi FC 2 Chunnam Dragons 2, April 23 2008, Bangkok
Gamba Osaka 2 Chonburi 0, May 7 2008, Expo 70 Stadium, Osaka (TBC)
Gwangyang
Analysis
Melbourne Victory's hopes of making it through to the second stage of this tournament may be dashed, but there is considerable pride on the line here for the home side after what has been a disappointing campaign. A positive start has been followed by three losses and a draw and a failure to get a win in this match could well see Melbourne finish bottom of its group.
But a win here and favourable results elsewhere would see Melbourne finish second overall and leave some gloss on a campaign which has been as much a learning curve as anything else.
The loss of Archie Thompson after just two matches was a massive blow to the Victory, but he may return for the final match depending on whether he has fully recovered from his knee injury. Leigh Broxham is also eligible again after sitting out the match against Chunnam suspended but is battling an ankle injury.
Ernie Merrick, who will return to Melbourne from an overseas scouting trip on the eve of the game, may use this as an opportunity to give some of his younger players a run.
Mitchell Langerak will come in for Michael Theoklitos in goals, while Evan Berger and Nathan Elasi are likely to be given their chance to impress. Carlos Hernandez is likely to make his first start since suffering a knee injury before the first match having come on as a substitute against Chunnam. Leandro Love is another player who could be used.
Danny Allsopp, Rody Vargas and Broxham are all in the Socceroos squad for the match against Ghana, so they may be given less than full games depending on how the match pans out.
Chonburi will be much less of an unknown quantity to the Victory than they were in Bangkok and it will take a while for the home side to forget the left foot of Cameroon import Stephane Baga, who stunned the Victory with a magnificent goal in that match. But while Baga ended with a brace in that 3-1 win, it was Brazilian Ney Fabiano who impressed the Victory most.
He will be the danger man again, along with Baga, while skipper Pipob On-Mo is also a very good player and scored a goal against Chunnam earlier in the campaign. Thai national keeper Kosin Hathairattanakool has conceded just seven goals in the five matches to date and will again be hard to get past.
Chonburi has two players suspended for this match, Thai national players Nataphorn Phanrit and Suttinan Pukhorm. Chonburi's form in this tournament has tapered off after an excellent start and the Thai champions have just one point to show from their past three matches. The Thai league is currently in recess, with Chonburi second after losing to top side BEC Tero Sasana in their previous game on May 3.
You get the feeling the Victory have something to prove in this one, but predicting the result of dead rubber can sometimes be fraught. Melbourne should sign off from the Champions League on a high, but Chonburi will be very much keen to do the same.