Adelaide United have the opportunity to jump into the Hyundai A-League’s top four – temporarily at least – when they host Wellington Phoenix at Coopers Stadium on Friday night.
The Reds, coming off arguably their best performance of the season in a 5-2 thumping of Newcastle, face a Phoenix outfit down on confidence but with little to lose in the final three rounds.
Adelaide sit two points behind fourth-placed Victory and will be desperate to pick up three points to keep the pressure on their arch-rivals with two tough away trips to come.
But if history is any guide, the Reds are strong favourites to pick up the win at Coopers.
Marco Kurz’s side are undefeated in seven-straight fixtures against the Nix (W4, D3) and have kept five clean sheets in that period.
Indeed, Adelaide have won six of the last eight matches against the Kiwi side at home, losing just once.
Check out some of the other key stats and facts ahead of an intriguing Round 25 clash in the City of Churches.
- Adelaide are undefeated in their last five games at home (W2, D3), the last time the enjoyed a longer undefeated streak on home soil was an eight-game stretch in 2015/16 (W6, D2).
- Wellington have lost their last four away games on the bounce, scoring just one goal and conceding 13 in that time.
- Adelaide (265) have made more total shots (ex. blocks) than any other team this season; however, they have also posted the lowest shooting accuracy of any squad (37%).
- Only Sydney FC (12) have scored more headed goals than Wellington (11) this campaign.
- Johan Absalonsen has been directly involved in 1.1 goals per game this season (5 goals, 4 assists in 8 games), the joint best rate in the league (with Sydney FC’s Bobo).
- Roy Krishna has been directly involved in four of Wellington’s last seven goals scored against Adelaide United (2 goals, 2 assists).
