The 2025-26 Isuzu UTE A-League season is down to the final four teams and aleagues.com.au has everything you need to know ahead of week 3 of the Finals Series.
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Adelaide United v Auckland FC (1-1 agg)
Friday, May 15 – Coopers Stadium – 7:35pm AEST
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Adelaide came away from the first leg in Auckland with the tie locked at 1-1 after Harry Crawford’s goal cancelled out Lachlan Brook’s opener.
Midfielder Ethan Alagich wasn’t surprised by Adelaide’s fight back and won’t be surprised if they take a win in the second leg.
“We knew how good we could be. We believed in the coaching staff and we believe in what we can do on Friday night.”
Defender Bart Vriends is realistic about Auckland’s strengths, but he too is confident.
“(Auckland) is not an easy team to play against, we’ve noticed that now many times, even last year.
“The way we played in Auckland, we basically matched them in every moment of the game.
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“We know they’re physical, we know they come in with lots of crosses for their tall strikers and their wingers can deliver pretty well. But we stood our ground and our football usually prevails.
“We struggled a bit in one phase in the first half, but the way we stood up in the second half is the way to go.
“We’ve got to be humble, but confident. It’s a great position for us.”
“We’re happy with the result of last weekend, especially being that we know that we can finish it at home.”
Vriends is also looking forward to the return of striker Luka Jovanović.
“He doesn’t owe the team, he shot us into the semi-finals and he did a tremendous job. Obviously it cost him because of the celebration, but we’re just happy for him to be back.
“He’s a great asset for us and he’s the type of player that can score really crucial goals, that’s what he did in Melbourne and has done many times for us.
“We’ve got a strong and full squad now, which is even better.
“The thing with our squad is that we’ve got lots of flavours and types of players. Anselmo is probably the strongest target man, strongest in holding up the ball and that really helps us playing forward and Luka is one of the best finishers in the league.”
Socceroo Craig Goodwin is set to feature, though it remains to be seen how heavily.
“I think he’s fit enough (to play 90 minutes), it’s just on him and on Airton to step up and come into the team. Obviously we know what he can do, he is one of them big moment players as well, so this could be his stage – it’s been his stage before.”
Auckland FC were in Adelaide’s position last year, holding the upper-hand going into the second semi-final leg against Melbourne Victory.
Manager Steve Corica was keen to point out their experience and the pressure falling on Adelaide as hosts.
“We’ve been in this situation last season, most of them played and they now how to deal with it.
“Going away from home is probably less pressure on us, it’s more on Adelaide to make the play. And we’re ok with that.”
“Last season, the only thing we did wrong was concede two goals in five minutes, so we can’t afford to do that.
“We can’t afford to concede at all, if we can keep a clean sheet, I think we’ve got a very good chance of going into the Grand Final”
Corica admitted the number of injuries throughout the squad is high, but he doesn’t see it effecting his side too much.
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“Walking wounded we are at the moment, but we patch them up and get them back out there. Sam’s done it, Hiroki’s done it.
“That happens throughout the season, not just at the end of the season that players have little injuries and they play through them, but more importantly around this time they all want to play.
“We still have a couple of players out, obviously not great news for Gullermo (May), he’s going to be out of the game, so we’re going to have to replace him.
“But hopefully if we get back to a Grand Final, we might have a couple of players back.”
Newcastle Jets v Sydney FC (1-1 agg)
Saturday, May 16 – McDonald Jones Stadium – 7:40pm AEST
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A goal from form winger Eli Adams just six minutes after Sydney’s Apostolos Stamatelopoulos had opened the scoring sees Newcastle return home all square for the second leg of the semi-final.
Adams mentioned in the week that while some of his teammates have been practising penalties, they don’t plan on needing them.
“Throughout the whole season we’ve had some of the boys practice it, but we haven’t gone into anything specific for this weekend. That might come later in the week, but we’re planning to do the job in 90 minutes.”
“It’s one of those moments you dream of as a young kid, kicking a ball in the backyard. You pretend that you’ve got thousands of people chanting or booing, either/or.
“For us being in the home crowd will be really special having everyone’s support behind us.”
“It doesn’t typically mean anything, but we’re certainly going to appreciate the fans that are there this weekend.
“They had that extra boost on the weekend at their home ground, and we’ll have the same with our fans this weekend. It’ll be like having a 12th man out there with us, but
“We’ll prepare the exact same way we have all season and double down on our beliefs, our identity that we’ve shown and be ready to give it our all.
Sydney fullback Ben Garuccio is excited about the match up as the Sky Blues look to upset what will no doubt be a packed house at McDonald Jones Stadium.
“It’s the best time of the year. This is why we do it, this is why we’re professionals – for massive games like this.”
“To be one game away from playing in a Grand Final is huge for the club, huge for the boys, I know everyone’s excited so it’s going to be a massive game.
“It would have been better to go there with a 1-0 win which I think the game probably deserved, but they go their goal and now it just turns into a 90 minute match.
“We were on the front foot, we pressed really well as a team, we won a lot of balls in good areas so for us, we won’t really change it up.”
Arguably key to any positive result in Newcastle will be another rugged and resilient performance from Sydney FC’s young but tenacious midfield duo of Paul Okon-Engstler and Wataru Kamijo.
“I think we’ve got to keep continuing to be aggressive like we were, the boys in the middle of the park Wataru and Paully Okon were unbelievable for us and they make everything tick in there, winning a lot of balls.
“So we’ve got to keep that aggressiveness, and then be ruthless in front of goal as well.
“It’s going to be very tight, regardless of how the game goes. We had a young team out as well, I know Newcastle are a super young team but we had so many young players as well that stepped up so of course the senior boys in the team always try and help in those moments – the ones that have been there before, which is not too many of us, but I think you can draw on that experience a little bit.”
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