Man City hit Liverpool with counter-attack
One more win this season will give the Wellington Phoenix their best points haul on the road in their 17-year history in A-League Men.
And if they get those three points tonight, when they face Melbourne City at AAMI Park, they will banish a seven-year hoodoo – and 11-year hoodoo – at the same time.
The Phoenix haven’t won any of their 19 matches at Melbourne’s rectangular stadium since beating Melbourne Victory 3-0 there on April 2, 2017.
In their subsequent meetings with City, Victory and Western United, seven draws have been their best results, including a 1-1 with Victory last November, where they didn’t fire a single shot, but led for a long time thanks to an own goal.
You have to go back to 2013, when City were still called Melbourne Heart, to find a Phoenix win against them in Melbourne.
Belgian forward Stein Huysegems scored in a 1-0 win on December 27 that year, but since then, Wellington’s best results from their last 13 meetings with City in Melbourne have been four draws.
All told, the Phoenix have won just three of their 35 A-League men matches at AAMI Park, with the one positive result not yet mentioned coming on March 1, 2015 – a 3-2 win over Victory that featured a 77th-minute winner from Nathan Burns.
Against Western United they’ve lost there once – in an elimination final in the 2021-22 season. Against Victory they’ve lost nine times out of 17. Against City they’ve lost 10 times out of 17.
But this year, the Phoenix are different. They’re top of the ladder, heading into round 20, with 40 points from 20 matches – or two points per game. City meanwhile are eighth, five points adrift of the top six.
On the road, the Phoenix have picked up 20 points from a possible 33, losing only to Sydney FC – their next opponents in Auckland in round 21. At home they have 20 from a possible 27, losing only to the Newcastle Jets.
So will their form lead to what will be just their second-ever away win over City this weekend, in a match that has been pushed back 90 minutes, from 5.30pm to 7pm local time (9pm NZ time) due to forecast heat?
Coach Giancarlo Italiano said yesterday that the Phoenix “haven’t even spoken about” their poor record at AAMI Park, which tends to produce one of the better atmospheres in A-League Men, though more so when Victory are playing than City.
Italiano said being part of that “buzz” was the best thing about visiting Melbourne, while the toughest part was the Phoenix’s record – “the fact that we’ve found it difficult to win there for so long”.
“I'm not sure if it’s maybe a mental thing. I don’t think it’s the travel, because we’ve played other teams at other parks and we’ve won, so I’m not really sure what it is.
“Hopefully we can change it tomorrow [tonight].”
The Phoenix are set to have their leading scorer, Kosta Barbarouses, available from the start, after he returned from a oneweek injury absence off the bench in last Sunday’s thrilling 3-2 win over Adelaide United at Sky Stadium.
Polish striker Oskar Zawada remains absent after withdrawing during the warmup for that match and while Italiano was hopeful he would be back for next Saturday’s match against Sydney at Eden Park, the coach seemed far from certain that would be the case.
“It's still a little bit iffy, in terms of the actual soreness and the diagnosis as well.
“Because he’s now had a couple of injuries, we have to be on the cautious side more than anything.
“Next week, if it continues the way it is at the moment, we’ll probably have to get further scans. At the moment, we’re looking like he’ll be back for next week.”
The Phoenix received a boost yesterday when City forward Marco Tilio was ruled out of today’s match. The Socceroos international suffered a hamstring injury which is set to rule him out for between four and six weeks.
Another Socceroos forward, Mathew Leckie, is also in doubt this weekend, while City’s leading striker, Jamie Maclaren, will
What: A-League Men round 20, Wellington Phoenix v Melbourne City
Where, when: AAMI Park, Melbourne; tonight, 9pm
Coverage: Live on Sky Sport; Live updates on Stuff
be looking to break a nine-match scoring drought that stretches back to December 28.
Barbarouses is the only Phoenix player to have won a match with the club at AAMI Park – but has also won against them while playing there for Victory, one of three clubs with which he celebrated an A-League Men Championship.
He said this week that he could see “elements” of those title-winning sides – the others being Brisbane Roar and Sydney FC – in the 2023-24 edition of the Phoenix.
“There are boys playing beyond their years, boys playing out of their skin, a couple of last-minute winners, some last-minute penalty saves.
“Things have been going only round 20.
“I believe there’s enough quality here to do it. Whether we do or not, it’s going to be more fine margins, but I believe we can and well, but it’s
I think everyone here does, we just really need to kick on from here and even go to another gear, which I think we can.”
Barbarouses is expected to be named in an All Whites squad for the first time in a year on Monday.
Italiano said after last weekend’s win over Adelaide that seven of his players had been included on the long list for New Zealand’s matches against Egypt and either Croatia or Tunisia in the UAE later this month – five in the main squad and two on standby.
It seems fairly clearcut that the seven are Barbarouses, midfielders Ben Old and Alex Rufer, defenders Lukas Kelly-Heald, Tim Payne and Finn Surman and goalkeeper Alex Paulsen, but precisely how they fall across those two groups will become clear only when All Whites coach Darren Bazeley reveals his squad on Monday. It’s also possible the breakdown has shifted since the Phoenix were first informed.
In anticipation of potentially being without all those players, the Phoenix were able to get Brisbane Roar to reschedule their round-22 match at Sky Stadium from the evening of Friday, March 29, to the afternoon of Sunday, March 31, where it will kick off at 1pm, allowing the visitors to fly home that evening.
Erling Haaland has hit back at Trent Alexander-Arnold’s provocative remarks about Manchester City as a war of words erupted ahead of their top-of-the-table English Premier League clash at Anfield.
Alexander-Arnold claimed this week that Liverpool’s success under Jürgen Klopp “means more” than City’s achievements in a thinly-veiled dig at the club’s spending en route to winning 14 major trophies under Pep Guardiola.
The teams come face to face on Monday (4.45am NZT), with Liverpool a point clear of City at the Premier League summit in what could be the final meeting between Guardiola and Klopp before the German leaves Anfield at the end of the season.
City’s rivalry with Liverpool has been inflamed in recent years by ugly confrontations between fans, and the jibes of Alexander-Arnold could add extra spice after Haaland responded by saying the Liverpool defender does not know how it feels to win the Treble.
“If he wants to say that, OK,’’ said Haaland, before adding sarcastically: “I’ve been here one year and I’ve won the Treble and it was quite a nice feeling. I don’t think he knows exactly this feeling.
“They can talk as much as they want. He can talk as much as he wants. I don’t know why he does that but I don’t mind.”
In an interview with FourFourTwo magazine, Alexander-Arnold, who has six career honours with Liverpool, suggested the Merseyside club’s individual pieces of silverware held more value.
“Looking back on this era, although they [City] have won more titles than us and have probably been more successful, our trophies will mean more to us and our fanbase because of the situations at both clubs financially,’’ he said.
“How both clubs have built their teams, and the manner in which we’ve done it, probably means more to our fans. It’s tough. We’re up against a machine that’s built to win – that’s the simplest way to
Premier League fixtures this weekend: Tomorrow: 1am (NZT), Manchester United v Everton; 4am, Bournemouth v Sheffield United, Crystal Palace v Luton, Wolves v Fulham; 6.30am, Arsenal v Brentford. Monday: 2am, Aston Villa v Tottenham; 3am, Brighton v Nottingham Forest, West Ham v Burnley; 4.45am, Liverpool v Manchester City.
Tuesday: 9am, Chelsea v Newcastle.
describe City and their organisation.”
City hope to win their sixth title in seven seasons and become the first top-flight side in England to win it four times in a row. But City have won just once in front of a crowd at Anfield since 1981 and Haaland knows it will be tough.
“It’s a really special game,’’ the striker added. ‘‘Really important. That’s what is nice about the Premier League, there are so many who are so good. So many can win the Premier League. The last years it’s been Manchester City and we’re going to try to do it again. It’s not going to be easy but we are good.”
City defender Manuel Akanji hopes they can end their Anfield hoodoo.
“I don’t want to talk about the title race but it would be a big win for us,” he said. “We haven’t done the best there in the past – but why not change it this weekend?
Whereas Liverpool were in action in the Europa League yesterday, winning 5-1 away to Sparta Prague, and have an array of injury problems, Guardiola was able to rest most of his key players for Thursday’s 3-1 Champions League win over Copenhagen and has almost a full squad to pick from.
Akanji hopes City can work that to their advantage.
“Maybe – they’ve had injuries but I think some will be ready for the weekend,” he said. “And even though some won’t be fit, the ones who are will still give everything in the game. We know how hard it is to play there.’’