Brisbane Roar aim to continue their strong start to the 2023/24 Isuzu UTE Men’s season when they head across the ditch to face Wellington Phoenix at Sky Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
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ALW R3 PREVIEW: Wellington Phoenix v Brisbane Roar
Roar come into Saturday’s match off the back of an unbeaten start including a stunning 3-0 win over Sydney FC at Suncorp Stadium last Friday night and enter Round 3 sitting equal third on the ladder.
Henry Hore scored his first ever A-League brace while Nikola Mileusnic was also on target as Roar exacted revenge on the Sky Blues in a rematch of the Australia Cup Final.
Only Melbourne Victory’s Bruno Fornaroli (5) has found the back of the net more times this season than Hore, who has now been directly involved in seven goals across his last 11 league games (4 goals, 3 assists).
Roar look to go undefeated for the opening three rounds of an A-League season for the first time since the 2011/12 Championship winning campaign under Ange Pstecoglou.
Roar are boosted by the return of Carlo Armiento to the match day squad, who alongside Corey Brown is in contention to play his first A-League minutes of the new season after missing the first two weeks through injury.
The Phoenix start the weekend level on points with Brisbane and are one of six teams yet to taste defeat this season.
Giancarlo Italiano’s side look to make it back-to-back home wins on Saturday following a 2-1 victory over Perth Glory last weekend.
In total Roar and Phoenix have gone head-to-head 46 times in Isuzu UTE A-League Men’s action with Roar winning on 21 occasions, the Phoenix on 11 and there having been 14 draws between the pair.
Speaking pre-match, Brisbane Roar Head Coach Ross Aloisi said he was pleased with how his side were progressing heading into the weekend’s Round 3 clash.
“It’s not just the start of the season, but in pre-season how quickly the players adapted to the playing style and what we wanted to achieve at the beginning of the season, so it started way earlier than these first two games,” Aloisi said.
“You saw in the cup final a really, really good performance for the first 55-60 minutes and then the next two games have been really good.
“Obviously, having Thomas Waddingham back – not just because of him but our formation changing back to what it was, helped out a lot.
“(Phoenix) Are a different team, different coach, they play a different brand of football.
“They are a good ball playing team and going into Wellington’s always difficult, it’s never easy, you’ve got the flight and a training session there.
“But again the focus is on our process and what we’re doing and doing it better than what we did last week.”
Saturday’s match which kicks off at 2:30pm forms part of a double header at Sky Stadium with the Roar’s Liberty A-League Women’s side also taking on the Phoenix at 11:45am.
MATCH DETAILS
Isuzu UTE A-League Men 2023/24 – Round 3: Wellington Phoenix v Brisbane Roar
Sky Stadium, Wellington
Saturday, 4 November (2:30pm AEST KO)
Click Here for match tickets
Broadcast live on Paramount+
