Adelaide United defender Michael Marrone revealed his rare headed goal on Sunday was pre planned

Apostolos Stamatelopoulos’ send off against Wellington is destined to turn an Adelaide United quandary into a team-building exercise this week, says makeshift centre back Michael Marrone.

Adelaide United’s Michael Marrone celebrates a rare goal in the 3-1 win over Wellington Phoenix at Coopers Stadium on Sunday. (Photo by Kelly Barnes/Getty Images)

• Is Apostolos the X-factor Kurz has been craving?

Apostolos Stamatelopoulos’ needless send off against Wellington Phoenix is destined to turn an Adelaide United quandary into a team building exercise this week, says makeshift centre back Michael Marrone.

Marrone revealed coach Marco Kurz was serious when he announced on Sunday that Stamatelopoulos — who turned 20 on Tuesday — would host a barbecue as punishment for his expulsion in the 3-1 win at Hindmarsh.

Kurz has enforced the punishment since he took the job in June 2017 for players’ misdemeanours, Marrone said.

The exciting striker will miss two matches including Saturday’s potentially top-six defining clash against Melbourne City away and against Melbourne Victory at home on April 19.

Apostolos Stamatelopoulos of Adelaide is given a yellow card, soon followed with a red, during the Round 24 A-League match against Wellington. Picture: AAP Image/James Elsby

Adelaide officials did not lodge an appeal against the ban after Marrone on Sunday opened the score followed by two clinical strikes from Stamatelopoulos before he was sent off just before half time.

“At half time you could see he was pretty devastated, he is young and he’ll have to learn from it and cough up a barbecue by the looks of it,’’ Marrone said.

“This week probably definitely (the barbecue) you’ll have to ask AP (Stamatelopoulos when).”

With the bonding session set to galvanise a team which will lose its coach at season’s end and Stamatelopoulos to Western United, Melbourne City has been Adelaide’s bogey side since Kurz took charge.

In five previous A-League meetings Adelaide has lost three times and drawn twice to City.

City is a point behind fifth-placed Adelaide and fourth placed Phoenix.

They face lowly Brisbane Roar away on Friday where they’re expected to win and the Reds will at worst need to come away with a draw or face the prospect of seeing its home final hopes dashed.

“They’re very good in terms of numbers and shape and they’ll make it compact and difficult,’’ Marrone said about City.

“When they have the ball, they can produce something out of nothing because they’ve got a couple of special players, we’re just going to have to be compact ourselves and try and not to concede and we’ll get our chances.”

Michael Marrone celebrates a goal during the round 24 A-League match between Adelaide United and the Wellington Phoenix. Picture: Kelly Barnes/Getty Images

Marrone is also confident the Reds can again score from a set piece like he did on Sunday.

He has now scored four goals in his senior career — one for the Socceroos, two in the A-League and one in the FFA Cup.

He claimed his headed goal on Sunday wasn’t off the cuff — it was pre planned.

“To kick off the first goal was great but I didn’t know how to celebrate, in the last two games we’ve played a bit better football and been a lot more competitive and if we can carry that leading into the finals I think we’ll be a chance,’’ he said.

“Each opposition we’re playing we set up differently and all the players knew where the balls were going and where the runs had to be made we did practice the day before.

“There was a couple of players making runs and the ball was there about in the middle because we knew the keeper (Filip Kurto) usually stays on his line and we wanted to put it in the mixer.”

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