The Wellington Phoenix will start their 2023 Australia Cup campaign in little over four weeks.
Football Australia has announced the Phoenix’s round of 32 match against Queensland National Premier Leagues club Peninsula Power will be played at 7:30pm AEST (9:30pm NZT) on Friday, August 4 – the earliest of five potential dates.
The game will be played on the first FIFA Women’s World Cup rest day at A.J. Kelly Park in Redcliffe, where the Phoenix women memorably came back from 2-0 and a player down to draw 3-3 with the Brisbane Roar in January.
It will be just the men’s second Australia Cup match in Queensland. The first was in 2019 when the Brisbane Strikers beat the Phoenix 4-2 on penalties in Ufuk Talay’s first match in charge.
The Nix are endeavouring to reach the quarter-finals of the Cup for the third straight season, having been eliminated by eventual champions Macarthur FC last year.
Peninsula Power currently sit eighth in NPL Queensland this year, but they are unbeaten in their past five league matches.
It is their fourth appearance in the round of 32 and they had a memorable run to the quarter-finals of last year’s Cup, before losing 1-0 to beaten finalists Sydney United 58.
The Wellington Phoenix are in their first week of pre-season training and will play a couple of internal matches before travelling to Brisbane early next month.
