A-Leagues great and former Wellington Phoenix striker Kosta Barbarouses believes his old side have never had a better chance to win their first New Zealand Derby.
The ledger between Auckland FC and the Phoenix has been embarrassingly one-sided since the Black Knights entered the A-League Men ahead of the 2024/25 season.
Under the tutelage of A-Leagues legend Steve Corica Auckland won all six editions of the fixture to date, most notably defeating Wellington 6-1 at Go Media Stadium as well as handing the Nix a 5-0 defeat at home, a result which prompted the dismissal of Head Coach Giancarlo Italiano.
Heading into the seventh edition of the New Zealand Derby things feel different.
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Under new Head Coach Chris Greenacre though, the Phoenix are flying high heading into the Derby having won their opening three matches this season.
In contrast, Auckland FC sit sixth on the ladder having recorded one win, one loss and a draw and Barbarouses believes his old side are perfectly position to record their first win against their northern neighbours.
“I think it will be the first Derby that they’re going to be going out for blood,” Barbarouses said on Episode 3 of the A-Leagues: On the Whistle podcast.
“I was involved in the first few where we were probably up against it from the beginning, for the first few games and last year as well was the same.
“This will be the first time where they probably think that they’re in a better headspace or place than Auckland going into the game.
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“I don’t think it’s going to be an easy game, we can’t count Auckland out – they’ve still got some good weapons, and [Sam] Cosgrove to come back, we’ve got to remember that.
“So it wont be a walk in the park.”
“But who’s going to bet against the Phoenix even dropping points at this point?”
Barbarouses was part of the Phoenix squad that lost the first three editions of the fixture and got himself on the scoresheet in a tight 2-1 loss at Go Media Stadium.
The last meeting between the two sides saw the Black Knights run out 5-0 winners at Hnry Stadium with Phoenix goalkeeper Josh Oluwayemi scoring a catastrophic own goal to set the tone.
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However the Phoenix football department made wholesale changes to the squad during the off-season, including bringing in a new goalkeeper in the form of Ipswich Town shotstopper Henry Gray on loan, and Barbarouses believes that’s been made a huge improvement.
“Henry Gray, a big upgrade on what they had. They’ve just improved in a lot of areas.
“Chris Greenacre has worked with a lot of these guys for three, four, five years in the youth set-up so he knows them inside out.
“Then he’s got guys like Alex Rufer, Kazuki Nagasawa and Bill Tuiloma to rely on at the back.
“I’d be pretty excited If i was a Phoenix fan at the moment.”
Listen to the A-Leagues’ brand new podcast offering ‘On the Whistle’ every Sunday night as host James Dodd is joined by A-League Championship winners Kosta Barbarouses and Erik Paartalu to review all the action from the weekends games.
