Wellington Phoenix is back to action in Distance Derby

After not playing in the last weekend in the top-tier league of Australian football, Wellington Phoenix is back to action this Friday – but they will need to travel a long distance to face Glory in Perth. The Distance Derby is the name given to the match between Phoenix and Glory; both sides need to travel the longest distance in the league for their three matches in the regular season – this is the time for the New Zealand-based side to fly to the Australian west coast city of Perth.

Glory comes in a fantastic streak of eight unbetan matches, being seven of those victories – including an impressive 6-2 over Newcastle Jets. The likes of Diego Castro, Bruno Fornaroli and Nicholas D’Agostino are key figures for the purple side. Chris Ikonomidis, another important member of Perth Glory squad, will be missing the match against Phoenix after sustaining an injury – good news for the Nix that will not have to deal with the Austrailian international.

The coach Ufuk Talay will have all players available for the weekend, including the young talented midfielder Reno Piscopo that is back afte a succesful stint with Australia U23 national team in Thailand, helping his country to qualify for the Men’s Olympics Football tournament. The 21-year-old player missed the last four matches of Phoenix.

The club that is currently ranked 4th in the league will have a rare chance to jump positions in the table; a win can mean for the Phoenix reaching the 2nd spot in the table. The match is not going to be easy for any side, since the fantastic moment of Glory put them in the 3rd place in the run so far.

Phoenix also had a fantastic streak in the season – nine matches without a defeat – that was broken three weeks ago by Brisbane Roar after a 1-0 away defeat. Their last match against Mariners gave the New Zealanders a relief to the back to the winning ways after a hard fought 2-1 win at Sky Stadium in Wellington.

The match will be telecasted by Sky Sport and livestreamed at MyFootball YouTube channel for foreign supporters. Glory take on Phoenix at 11:45pm NZT at HBF Park, Perth.