A-League 2020: Perth Glory set up clash with Sydney FC after knocking out Wellington Phoenix
Perth Glory coach Tony Popovic produced a major tactical victory to end Wellington Phoenix’s mighty nine-week stint in Sydney on a sour note in the opening match of the A-League finals series.
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Wellington Phoenix’s marathon stint in the A-League hub is over, with Perth Glory’s Joel Chianese sending the A-League troopers packing in Saturday night’s elimination final.
Chianese’s crisp first-half finish was the difference between the two teams, and Glory will now face Sydney FC in Wednesday’s semi-final for a place in the August 30 grand final.
“You have to beat the best to win the championship, and (Sydney FC) have been the best this year,” Tony Popovic said.
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“We’re up against the best but we know we can beat them.
“Our goal is to win the grand final – I’ve said that all along, after every defeat, our objective hasn’t changed.”
Though Phoenix will wonder if the football gods were truly on their side after the third-placed finishers dominated possession and territory and had a mighty 21 shots on goal in the gruelling 1-0 defeat at Bankwest Stadium.
“Football is a cruel game sometimes,” said Phoenix coach Ufuk Talay.
“You dominate the game, create enough opportunities to win…. (But) if we’re not clinical in front of goals, we can’t win games.
“We gave them one opportunity where they scored, and I think we totally dominated the game. But we didn’t score a goal to get us back into it.”
Having won just once from their final five regular season games, and shipping 14 goals since the league’s resumption, Glory coach Tony Popovic produced a tactical victory as Glory regularly repelled attacks – absorbing pressure and frustrating Phoenix’s star man Ulises Davila.
It ends a mighty nine-week stint in Sydney for the Phoenix, who came across from Wellington early to ensure the A-League season could be completed – and had been considered one of the genuine title shots following some bright form pre-shutdown.
But Ufuk Talay’s men stumbled as they approached the finish line, and now find their wait for a finals victory extends into an eighth year.
They have Chianese – and a strong performance in goals from Glory’s Liam Reddy – to thank for it.
Rising Glory midfielder Jake Brimmer was a menace all night and it was the 22-year-old who laid on the inch-perfect pass which split the Phoenix defence for Chianese to slice through on goal.
Chianese made no mistake, with a delightful first touch creating just enough space for him to sweep a left-footed shot home past Stefan Marinovic for the game’s only goal.
Phoenix were left to rue their wastefulness in front of goal, with striker Jaushua Sotirio butchering a handful of chances to level the scores – none better than in the 75th minute, when he was teed up by Callan Elliot only to spray a shot wide from the edge of the six-yard box.
The chances continued to come for the Phoenix, with Reddy producing a wonderful save from close range to deny David Ball in the closing stages. Ball, again, went close in the 89th when an audacious chip grazed the cross bar – but it wasn’t to be Wellington’s night.
Western United and Brisbane Roar will contest the second elimination final on Sunday, with the winner to play second-placed Melbourne City on Wednesday.
Defender DeVere repays the faith
An A-League title was probably the last thing on Luke DeVere’s mind when he joined Wellington Phoenix.
The ex-Socceroos defender’s career was at the crossroads after he had been all but written off by his former club Brisbane Roar.
DeVere made just five appearances for the Roar last season and wasn’t offered a new deal.
But still only 30 at the time, DeVere knew he wasn’t a spent force, but just needed someone to believe in him.
And that someone was new Wellington coach Ufuk Talay, who offered the centre-back a one-year deal.
It proved to be a wise move by Talay, with DeVere having started in 24 of the Phoenix’s 26 matches this season and been a defensive rock in Wellington’s rise to third place on the A-League ladder.
“I was confident that I still had plenty to offer and was capable of performing and doing a job in a team,” said DeVere, who is set to line up in the heart of Wellington’s defence in Saturday’s elimination final against Perth Glory at Bankwest Stadium.
“Whether I had something to prove was probably for other people to judge, but for me it was more about an opportunity to go and enjoy my football again, and play somewhere I was going to have a string of games together.
“Last season people assumed I was injured but I wasn’t, so for me it’s been validation in the fact I haven’t been injury-prone or had huge injuries for a couple of years now, even though the perception last year was probably that way.”
Having re-established himself as one of the competition’s best defenders, DeVere new goal is to win an A-League title with the Phoenix.
A championship seemed well out reach after Wellington started the season with four successive losses.
But they recovered to win six and draw three of their next nine matches to set themselves up not only for a top-six berth but the highest-placed regular-season finish in club history.
“We’ve put ourselves in a decent position to have a good crack at the title,” DeVere said.
“The first four games of the season, while we didn’t get the results, there were still a lot of positive performances.,
“We look back on it and feel we were a little bit unlucky with some of those results in games where we actually played quite well.
“We were confident we were on the right path, and over the course of the season that’s come true and we’ve been pleased with how it’s played out.”
The Phoenix are wary of a Perth side that finished the season poorly to drop to sixth on the ladder.
“It’s finals football. Every team is dangerous if you don’t turn up on the day, you’re every chance of getting embarrassed a little bit,” DeVere said.
DeVere’s former Roar teammate, Olyroos striker Nick D’Agostino, has been ruled out of Perth’s squad due to a hamstring injury.
Glory coach Tony Popovic said: “Nick D’Agostino won’t be available - he got injured unfortunately in the Melbourne Victory game when he came on. A few others we’ve had to assess and manage through this period.”
Originally published as A-League 2020: Perth Glory set up clash with Sydney FC after knocking out Wellington Phoenix