Auckland City vs Southern United
Kiwitea Street, Auckland
Sunday 13 January, 2pm
#ISPSHandaPrem #ACvSU

Referee: A Riley
Assistant Referees: M Batoor, C Trent
Fourth Official: C Mills

Squads

Auckland City: 1. Enaut Zubikarai (GK), 4. Mario Bilen, 5. Angel Berlanga, 6. Brian Kaltak, 7. Cameron Howieson, 9. Javier Lopez, 11. Fabrizio Tavano, 12. Dylan Manickum, 14. Jordan Vale, 15. Daniel Morgan, 16. Yousif Ali, 17. Reid Drake, 18. Ruben Parker (GK), 19. David Browne, 22. Patrick Lundemo, 23. Alfie Rogers
Coach: Ramon Tribulietx

Southern United: 1. Liam Little (GK), 2. Conor O’Keeffe, 3. Rory Findlay, 4. Stephen Last, 5. Erik Panzer, 6. Danny Ledwith, 8. Tony Whitehead, 9. Garbhan Coughlan, 10. Abdulla Al-Kalisy, 11. Sam Pickering, 12. Adam Hewson, 13. Ben Deeley, 14. Blake Weston, 16. Stewart Catto (GK), 18. Markus Fjortoft
Coach: Paul O’Reilly

Lowdown

The City juggernaut is still showing no signs of slowing down and not even the festive break allowed any rustiness to creep in as they picked up exactly where they left off with a 2-0 defeat of local rivals Waitakere. Javier Lopez hit a brace in that victory and is now approaching double figures for the season so Southern’s well-organised defence will need to be at its best to keep out the sharp-shooting Spanish striker.

Quotes

Ramon Tribulietx (Auckland City coach): “Southern have had an inconsistent season so far but always deliver a competitive performance. They refuse to concede space to opponents with a well-formed and executed defensive strategy and that makes creating chances to score very difficult. They’ll be strong on the counter-attack through Abdulla Al-Kalisy and Garbhan Coughlan.”

Markus Fjortoft (Southern United): “Obviously, it was a tough result against Eastern Suburbs and we played well below par. We know that’s not a reflection of our quality, nor our aspirations. There’s two ways to react to that, to either let yourselves be defined by it or use it as a spark to show people what we can actually do. And I don’t think there’s a better way than to play the best team in the league away.”