Wellington Phoenix coach Giancarlo Italiano is banking on his players being protected by referee Daniel Elder if Brisbane Roar try to “kick” them at Sky Stadium on Sunday.
Under new coach Michael Valkanis, the Roar have already developed a reputation of pushing the boundaries with their physicality, having vowed not to take a backwards step to anyone.
Valkanis’ son Dimitri, who was brought to the club on loan from Greek outfit AEK Athens, was sent off in Brisbane’s opening round 1-0 home win over Macarthur FC last Friday for two bookable offences, the first of which was a late and crude challenge on Bulls attacker Chris Ikonomidis.
“You just know after that first game against Macarthur they’re going to be really sleeves up and a hard-working team,” Italiano said.
“We have to be patient. If they come and kick us, hopefully the referee protects us, but we’re not going to play that game.
“We’re just going to play our game, and the most important thing is we keep our heads.”
Coach Valkanis made no apologies for the Roar’s harder attitude but admitted it had to come with a balanced approach.
“We need to embody those values every week but at the same time not receive red cards, stay with 11 men, try to play our style of football as well and get some more goals on the board,” he said.
“Wellington is a good team. They’ve changed their style a bit compared to last season.
“They are playing very high up the pitch, very high pressing and getting behind as often as they can.
“It’s a little bit of a change of style which is good and we’ve prepared accordingly for this game and we’re looking forward to it.”
The Phoenix opened their season with a 2-2 away draw with Perth Glory, fighting back from two goals down to grab a share of the points.
“I feel as though this league this year is really going to come down to the wire. I think there won’t be any clear favourites for the initial part anyway which will make the league interesting,” Italiano said.
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