At Mt Smart Stadium, Auckland: Wellington Phoenix 2 (Hope Breslin 48’, Chloe Knott 61’) Perth Glory 1 (Millie Farrow 21’). HT: 0-1
The Wellington Phoenix women have come from behind to bounce back and head into the international break on a winning note.
Second-half goals from Hope Breslin and Chloe Knott gave the Phoenix a 2-1 win over Perth Glory at Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland on Saturday night.
The Phoenix’s fourth win of the season kept them third on the A-League Women table, a point off top.
Melbourne City can extend their lead in first on Sunday when they play Sydney FC.
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The Wellington Phoenix celebrate one of their goals against Perth Glory.
The Phoenix began the match the brighter of the two sides, with Manaia Elliott shooting just over from the edge of the box and Mariana Speckmaier hitting the side-netting after driving into the Glory box from the left.
Perth opened the scoring in the 22nd minute, after a sloppy cross-field pass by Michaela Foster in her own half was intercepted by Sofia Sakalis.
After bringing the ball under control, Sakalis played in English forward Millie Farrow, who got her shot off while falling to the ground between Phoenix defenders Hailey Davidson and Marisa van der Meer.
Making her first start of the season, Phoenix captain Annalie Longo went close towards the end of the first half, but at the break it was the visitors who had their noses in front.
It didn’t take long after halftime for that to change, as the Phoenix strung together a nice passing move that resulted in Longo finding Breslin wide open in the middle of the box.
The American forward has had a mixed start to life in Wellington, but she made no mistake with her shot past Glory goalkeeper Morgan Aquino to draw her side level.
Elliott went close for the second time on the night when she let rip from 30m out and forced Aquino to help the ball over her crossbar and out for a corner.
The Phoenix kept pressing and took the lead soon after, when Knott was on the spot to follow up with her head after Speckmaier’s initial header hit the crossbar.
Centre back Mackenzie Barry sent the ball in initially and it fell to Speckmaier after looping up off the head of a Glory defender.
Isobel Dalton called Phoenix goalkeeper Rylee Foster into action with a strong driven shot from way out that had the stopper leaping to push it out for a corner.
Up next
A weekend off for the Phoenix women, as the final women’s international window of the year unfolds, with the Football Ferns playing Colombia in Bogotá next Saturday and the following Wednesday (NZ time).
The Phoenix will return to action at Jerry Collins Stadium in Porirua on Sunday, December 10, against Melbourne Victory, who first host the Central Coast Mariners this Sunday in their final match before the international break.
