Adelaide City surges into grand final against Campbelltown City, hoping for third time lucky

ADELAIDE City has advanced to the Premier League soccer grand final for the third straight year following a dominant 2-0 win over MetroStars on Saturday night at Oakden.

Shannon Day celebrates after scoring Adelaide City’s first goal against MetroStars in the Premier League preliminary final. Picture: Adam Butler

ADELAIDE City has advanced to the Premier League soccer grand final for the third straight year following a dominant 2-0 win over MetroStars on Saturday night at Oakden.

Adelaide City captain Matthew Halliday during the preliminary final win against MetroStars. Picture: Adam Butler

Shannon Day opened the scoring for the Black and Whites in the preliminary final with a low-curling free-kick and Anthony Costa added a second from close range before the break.

City captain Matthew Halliday praised his side’s complete performance.

“It was a great all-round team performance,” Halliday said.

“We knew it was going to be quite tough coming off a 120-minute game so I thought the boys did well, dug deep and got the deserved result.”

Adelaide City now faces Campbelltown City in the title decider at Hindmarsh Stadium this Saturday night.

Halliday hoped it would be third time lucky for his side after losing successive finals in 2016 and 2017 against Campbelltown and Croydon.

MetroStars coach Robbie Saraceno meanwhile will tinker with his squad during the off-season to try to improve on the club’s second consecutive preliminary final exit.

Saraceno believed the club’s campaign, which led to it finishing third on the table, had been positive but reinforcements were needed to make a grand final in 2019.

Adelaide City’s Scott Nagel on the burst against Metrostars in the Premier League preliminary final. Picture: Adam Butler

“I think we’ve had a positive season but once again we’ve finished third for the year, like last year when we lost the preliminary final against Croydon,” Saraceno said.

“We’ll go away, work on certain aspects and tinker with our squad a little bit to go one or two spots better next year.”

In the State League One preliminary final, Modbury suffered a 4-1 extra-time loss to Adelaide Blue Eagles at Marden Sports Complex on Saturday.

ABE will now face Raiders in the grand final.

Playford and Adelaide Victory will clash in the State League Two decider, after the latter defeated Adelaide Hills 4-2 on Saturday.