Pre-season continues on Friday night as City host the Wanderers at the newly re-developed Greater Shepparton Regional Sports Precinct at McEwen Reserve.
The clash
Despite City’s premature exit from the cup, the show must go on for Warren Joyce and his side with the Club’s Round 1 clash with Brisbane at AAMI Park under three weeks away.
The Wanderers will be City’s fifth A-League opponent of the pre-season as the 2017 Westfield FFA Cup Semi Finalists head down to Shepparton fresh off their penalty shootout win over Blacktown City on Wednesday night.
Despite Western Sydney’s most recent match, Tony Popovic’s side are in a position much like City where every clash before the season proper will be more important than the last as both side finalise their preparations for a big 2017/18 season ahead.
With no major injury concerns for both sides since their last matches, it is set to be a true exhibition of A-League football in the Greater Shepparton region on Friday.
The Last time
It was one win, one loss and one draw between the sides during the 2016/17 season with the latest result seeing the Wanderers take out a 3-1 win at Spotless Stadium thanks to a Brendon Santalab hat-trick.
City took the lead through Neil Kilkenny early and were back to parity after 22 minutes as Santalab ensured the sides would go into the break level.
The Sydneysiders added their second and third in the space of four minutes as the prolific striker rounded out his hat-trick however City failed to take advantage of their lifeline back into the match as Bruno Fornaroli saw his penalty saved by Vedran Janjetovic late in the second half.
Where and when
City will travel to McEwen Reserve in Shepparton on Friday night to face the Western Sydney Wanderers, kick-off 7.30pm. Members will have been sent emails on how they can enter the match for free, tickets are also available at the gate on the night.
Warren Joyce’s side will return to Melbourne this weekend to be a part of Family Day powered by Big M at CFA Melbourne. Open training starts at 10.30am with festivities kicking off from 11.30am-2.30pm. We can’t wait to see you on Sunday!
