Wellington Phoenix head coach Giancarlo Italiano is eagerly awaiting the men’s return to Adelaide despite the club’s unenviable record in the city.
The Phoenix are playing Adelaide United at Coopers Stadium on Good Friday in round 27 of the Isuzu UTE A-League.
The Nix have won just four of their previous 26 matches in South Australia, the last of which was in December 2019 early in Italiano’s first season with the club.
The team travelled to Adelaide on Wednesday and trained in the city on Thursday.
“I love coming here and playing at the stadium,” Italiano told media via zoom. “I get a buzz.
“I think it’s probably the best football stadium set-up. When it’s full the place is buzzing. Great pitch as well.”
He believes the long journey from Wellington to Adelaide and the crowd at Coopers Stadium are what has made this fixture so difficult for the Phoenix.
“Obviously it’s Good Friday, so there’s going to be a large crowd.
“They get a buzz from the crowd and they can be quite vocal.
“Also, it’s the travel. We were on two flights yesterday and it takes a bit of time to recover.
“Sometimes it’s hard to get into the game. The couple of games that we’ve won, or that I remember, we’ve won late.
“We were 1-nil down…a think it was six years ago and we scored two late goals. It takes a bit of time for us to acclimatise. It’s a tough trip.”
Despite Wellington’s 3-2 defeat to Melbourne Victory, the Nix enter the Good Friday meeting in better form than the Reds.
Adelaide United are winless in their last eight matches and have lost their last four, most recently a 4-1 defeat at Perth Glory.
“I know they’ve had a couple of inconsistent results of late, but they’re still going to be very hard to play.
“They have a lot of good attacking options. They’re a dangerous team [and a] good transitional team.
“I think their strength is also their biggest weakness because when they throw numbers forward they can be transitioned as well.
“You saw Perth cause a lot of problems for them last week, but again at home they’re very hard to play.
“I’ve been there many times and I think I’ve only come out once or twice with a result.”
The Phoenix have three matches remaining in the 2024-25 A-League season and are driven to finish outside the bottom four, who will contest the Australia Cup playoffs in Darwin next month.
“Our goal still is to win the last three games.
“We think it’s very achievable and we want to also put on a good football show, build a little bit more consistency than what we did last week and have a better defensive display as well.
“Again, we take it game by game, try to win every game and try to maximise everything.
“Winning the last three games also is a matter of pride for the boys as a group.
“They want to finish the season as a high and winning three games in a row if we do go to Darwin gives us good momentum as well.”
Giancarlo Italiano has made one change to his travelling squad with Paulo Retre not able to make the trip after straining his hamstring moments before scoring the Nix’s second goal against Victory on Saturday.
Lachlan Candy, who started for the Phoenix reserves last weekend, has been promoted to the touring party in Retre’s place.
“We decided not to risk Paulo for this week.
“Just give him a week of recuperation and then back in the squad for next week.”
The round 27 Isuzu UTE A-League match between the Wellington Phoenix and Adelaide United is scheduled to kick-off at Coopers Stadium at 9:35pm (7:05pm ACST) Friday and will be broadcast free-to-air in New Zealand on Sky Open and LIVE on Sky Sport 3 in New Zealand and on Paramount+ in Australia.
Most recent meeting: 14 February 2025 – Melbourne Victory 1 Wellington Phoenix 0
All-time A-League head-to-head: Phoenix 12W, Adelaide 23W & 15D.
Wellington Phoenix squad (one to be omitted): 1. Josh OLUWAYEMI (gk),3. Corban PIPER, 4. Scott WOOTTON, 5. Fin ROA CONCHIE, 6. Tim PAYNE, 7. Kosta BARBAROUSES, 9. Hideki ISHIGE, 14. Alex RUFER (c), 15. Isaac HUGHES, 18. Lukas KELLY-HEALD, 19. Sam SUTTON, 23. Luke SUPYK, 25. Kazuki NAGASAWA, 27. Matt SHERIDAN, 29. Luke BROOKE-SMITH, 35. Dublin BOON (gk), 39. Jayden SMITH, 41. Nathan WALKER, 46. Lachlan CANDY.
Unavailable: 11. Stefan COLAKOVSKI (injured), 12. Chico GERALDES (injured), 30. Alby KELLY-HEALD (gk) (injured).
Adelaide United squad (two to be omitted): 1. James DELIANOV (gk), 3. Bart VRIENDS, 4. Jordan ELSEY, 6. Stefan MAUK, 7. Ryan KITTO (c), 8. ISAÍAS, 9. Luka JOVANOVIĆ, 10. Zach CLOUGH, 12. Jonny YULL, 13. Max VARTULI (gk), 14. Jay BARNETT, 17. Ben FOLAMI, 19. Yaya DUKULY, 20. Dylan PIERIAS, 21. Javi LÓPEZ, 26. Archie GOODWIN, 42. Austin AYOUBI, 44. Ryan WHITE, 51. Panagiotis KIKIANIS, 55. Ethan ALAGICH.
Unavailable: 36. Panashe MADANHA (injured), 54. Bailey O’NEIL (injured).
Main image: Cam McIntosh/Photomac.
