Wellington Phoenix host Adelaide United Wellington at Regional Stadium as the A-League Men soccer season returns in full swing. On Saturday, Melbourne Victory earned a hard-fought 3-2 win over Sydney FC in the derby.

Wellington Phoenix finished sixth in the A-League Men regular season last season but aimed to have a bright start when they take on The Reds.

Nix Fans! 🤩

The new WPX 22/23 Merchandise Range is out now and will be available for sale at our first home game this Sun 9 Oct at @skystadium! 🙌

The store is located outside Aisle 23 on the concourse and will be open from 1:45pm tomorrow! https://t.co/4zEYV3eSfc | 💛🖤 pic.twitter.com/KuNehZ2kTd

— Wellington Phoenix 🔥 (@WgtnPhoenixFC) October 8, 2022

Adelaide United, on the other hand, finished fourth last season but could not advance to the A-League Grand Final.

The last time the two sides met was 12 February 2022, which ended 2-2 scoreline.

Date and kickoff time

1:00 PM Sunday, in Canberra, ACT, Australia

03:00 AM Sunday, in the UK

Wellington Phoenix vs Adelaide United live stream and TV channel

Australia: Paramount+

UK and Ireland: BT Sport 5, BTSport.com, BT Sport App

USA: N/A

Cook Islands: Sky Sport 7 beIN Sports

Fiji: Sky Sport 7 beIN Sports

Hong Kong: myTV SUPER

Indonesia: beIN Sports Connect Indonesia

New Zealand: beIN Sports Connect New Zealand, Sky Sport 7 beIN Sports

Solomon Islands: Sky Sport 7 beIN Sports

Team News

Wellington Phoenix FC

Wellington Phoenix wants to break the jinx as they were winless in their last previous season opener, and the club head coach Ufuk Talay wants that change and is unfazed regardless of the opening he faces.

“We want to start the season on a high and hopefully get three points tomorrow against Adelaide,” Talay told media ahead of their final training session of the week (Wellington Phoenix official website).

Wellington Phoenix will be without David Ball and Alex RUFER due to injuries.

Squad

Finn Surman, Scott Wootton, Steven Ugarkovic, Tim Payne, Kosta Barbarouses, Ben OLD, Oskar Zawada, Bozhidar Kraev, 12. Lucas Mauragis, Nicholas Pennington, Callan Elliot, Ben Waine, Sam Sutton, Oli Sail (gk), Joshua Laws, Clayton Lewis, Oskar Van Hattum, Yan Sasse, Alex Paulsen (gk).

Adelaide United

Adelaide United wants to start the season strongly and will come all out when they take on Wellington Phoenix in New Zealand.

Head coach Carl Veart is happy with the performance of his players ahead of the commencement of the new season.

“I’m very happy with the performance of the boys and when we’re looking at data, we’ve improved a lot compared to where we were this time last year.

“So hopefully we can get a lot better start to the season than what we did last year.”(Adelaide United website).

Squad

James Delianov (gk), Harry VAN Der Saag, Ben Warland, Louis D’arrigo, Ryan Kitto, Isaías, Zach Clough, Craig Goodwin (captain), Lachlan Barr, George Blackwood, Javi López, Ben Halloran, Juande, Luka Jovanović, Panashe Madanha, Alexandar Popović, Joe Gauci (gk), Asad Kasumović, Musa Toure, Ethan Alagich

Five first-team players have been ruled out of the game: Nicholas Ansell, Hiroshi Ibusuki (suspension), Joshua Cavallo, Bernardo and Jonny Yull.