Wellington Phoenix head coach Giancarlo Italiano has joked he is going to buy his players boxing gloves for Saturday’s match against Brisbane Roar.
The Roar have committed the most fouls in the league and received the most cards.
They were also involved in a heated match with Central Coast Mariners on New Year’s Eve, during which the two teams had to be separated in the tunnel at halftime and Brisbane head coach Michael Valkanis was sent off.
Italiano says there’s nothing wrong with the Roar’s aggression.
“I think it’s quite acceptable,” he told media via zoom from Brisbane on Friday. “But we need to be smart in this game.
“We need to not play into the emotion of a team that is going to be aggressive and try to foul us.
“We need to be smarter with the ball. We need to move the ball around with a good tempo.
“I’m not going into the game trying to match their aggression because I think we’ll lose that game.
“Where I like to win the game is with our mind and how applied we are throughout the game. I think we have the ability to do that and I’m looking forward to a good game.”
The Roar also boast the best defence in the league, having conceded just six times in 10 matches. Two of those goals were against the Phoenix in a 2-1 defeat in October.
As a result Brisbane sit third on the ladder, just two points off the league lead.
“What they’ve built their success on throughout this season is they’re very hard to beat.
“Defensively very sound, very aggressive. I like the way they press. I also like the way they sometimes man mark and how they control the space.
“Brisbane are going to be a very tough opponent. It’s very important we go there and respect all the work they’ve done.
“They’re obviously in a high position because they’ve been grinding games quite well so it’ll be a very difficult game.”
While full of respect for Brisbane, Italiano has been preoccupied with turning Wellington’s fortunes around after a disappointing 5-1 defeat to Melbourne Victory to round out 2025.
“My experience is if you spend too much time focussing on the opposition and you move away from what your principles are, that’s when you can get a lot of vulnerability.
“I’ll put my hand up, the last couple of weeks we’ve tried to adjust things with the opposition in terms of how we’ve been attacked, especially with pressing higher up.
“In some respect we’ve been compromised with other principles.
“For me the main thing is we go and execute our playing model to a tee, and then the result will work out from that.”
He has also taken some valuable lessons from Newcastle’s 10-man win over Auckland on New Year’s Day.
“I thought Newcastle were outstanding yesterday. I thought it was one of the best games I’ve seen in a while in terms of how they defended with 10 men. It was credit to them.
“It wasn’t like Auckland were poor. They were good as well. Newcastle just defended for their lives.
“The one thing I can unequivocally say in this league is that, if you’re not on on the day you will lose the game.
“Every game so far that I’ve witnessed in the A-League, the team that is most willing, up for the challenge, fully focussed for the 90 minutes, applied…will win the game.
“That’s why the results are all skewed at the moment. It’s literally those factors that contribute to the win.
“I actually think it’s one of the best leagues in the world at the moment in terms of competitiveness.
“Every game you can’t establish a real favourite. And that’s the one thing my group needs to come to a realisation that there are no easy games.
“Every game is about application and focus for the full 90 minutes. I think the team that can consistently do that over the season, irrespective of how much quality a team has or not, will do very well.”
Italiano still has a lot of faith that the Phoenix can be the team that does very well this season.
“I think this group is one of the most talented groups that I’ve been part of, and I’ve been coaching for a long time.
“My job is to instil the belief in this team and make sure we can ride out these tough times, these chopper waters.
“Once we get two or three good results, we’ll be fine.”
Giancarlo Italiano has the same extended squad to pick from for Saturday afternoon’s game and has yet to decide if he’ll make any changes to the XI which started the Victory defeat.
“I don’t make my mind up until gameday. I want a see a response in training.
“It was very positive the other day and we have another session today and then the players will make their case to start.”
The round 11 Isuzu UTE A-League match between the Wellington Phoenix and Brisbane Roar is scheduled to kick-off at Kayo Stadium in Brisbane at 7pm (4pm AEST) Saturday and will be broadcast LIVE on Sky Sport 1 in New Zealand, and on Paramount+ in Australia.
Most recent meeting: 26 October 2025 – Wellington Phoenix 2 Brisbane Roar 1
All-time A-League head-to-head: Phoenix 14W, Roar 22W & 16D.
Wellington Phoenix squad (two to be omitted): 3. Corban PIPER, 4. Manjrekar JAMES, 5. Fin ROA CONCHIE, 7. Ifeanyi EZE, 8. Paulo RETRE, 11. Carlo ARMIENTO, 14. Alex RUFER (c), 15. Isaac HUGHES, 17. Gabriel SLOANE-RODRIGUES, 18. Lukas KELLY-HEALD, 20. Ramy NAJJARINE, 24. Xuan LOKE, 25. Kazuki NAGASAWA, 27. Matt SHERIDAN, 29. Luke BROOKE-SMITH, 30. Alby KELLY-HEALD (gk), 31. RYAN LEE, 37. Anaru CASSIDY, 39. Jayden SMITH, 40. Eamonn MCCARRON (gk).
Unavailable: 1. Josh OLUWAYEMI (gk) (injured), 6. Tim PAYNE (injured), 9. Hideki ISHIGE (injured), 10. Nikola MILEUSNIC (injured), 12. Dan EDWARDS (injured), 19. Nathan WALKER (injured),23. Luke SUPYK (injured).
Brisbane Roar squad (two to be omitted): 1. Dean BOUZANIS (gk), 2. Youstin Delfin SALAS GOMEZ, 3. Dimitri VALKANIS, 6. Austin LUDWIK, 8. Samuel KLEIN, 9. Christopher LONG, 10. Georgios VRAKAS, 11. Macklin FREKE (gk), 12. Lucas HERRINGTON, 13. Henry HORE, 15. Hosine BILITY, 16. Matthew DENCH, 17. Justin VIDIC, 19. Michael RUHS, 23. James McGARRY, 26. Jay O’SHEA (c), 30. Quinn MACNICOL, 31. Noah MAIERONI, 35. Mikael EVAGOROU-ALAO, 44. Jordan LAUTON.
Unavailable: 5. Marcus FERKRANUS (injured), 21. Antonee BURKE-GILROY (injured), 22. Nathan AMANATIDIS (injured), 77. Milorad STAJIC (injured).
Main image: Alex Rufer in possession for the Wellington Phoenix in the round 10 Isuzu UTE A-League match against Melbourne Victory at AAMI Park. Photo: Jordan Martin/Jordan M Sport.
