Auckland FC stand-in captain Jake Brimmer and Wellington Phoenix captain Alex Rufer. Photo: Photosport
Phoenix v Auckland FC
Kick-off: 7pm
Sky Stadium, Wellington
Live blog updates on RNZ Sport
Season two of the Wellington Phoenix and Auckland FC A-League New Zealand derby kicks off in the capital, with the hosts on the back foot against the competition's newest team.
In the 2025/26 season the two teams will clash three times, with Wellington being the home team for two of the three games.
The New Zealand derby is one of six derbies across the A-League.
The inaugural season of this derby was one-sided and built on barbs and big scorelines; the next chapter will build the rivalry on and off the football field.
Derby form
Auckland FC v Wellington Phoenix banner in the crowd in Auckland. Photo: Shane Wenzlick / www.photosport.nz
Auckland FC dominated all three derby games in their first season.
They kicked off with a 2-0 win in the first ever meeting between the two clubs. Followed it up with a 2-1 win in game two and capped it off with a 6-1 demolition in game three.
After the final thrashing, Phoenix coach Giancarlo Italiano said: "We got punished. Maybe it's the moment and the expectation."
Beyond this Saturday, the derby continues with Auckland hosting on 6 December and a return to Wellington on 21 February.
Season form
The undefeated Auckland FC are at the top of the 2025/26 A-League ladder with two wins and a draw.
The Wellington Phoenix have also not lost this season and are fourth in the standings with one win and two draws. After going 10 months without a home win, the Phoenix finally got a victory in front of their home fans in round two this season against Brisbane Roar.
Hijinks
Wellington Phoenix making their presence felt with a banner over an Auckland FC game. Photo: Shane Wenzlick / www.photosport.nz
The New Zealand derby has had its fair share of off-field banter.
After game one of the rivalry in Wellington last season, Auckland hired a digital billboard outside Sky Stadium which read, "Welcome to Ellington. We took the W back to Auckland."
A week earlier, the Phoenix flew a plane with a banner that said "NZ is yellow - see you next week" over an Auckland home game.
Even before Auckland FC had played a game a pitch invader in an Auckland FC shirt - before the kit publicly released - went on to the field in the Phoenix's last 'home' game at Eden Park.
Security remove a pitch invader in an Auckland FC shirt from the field during the Wellington Phoenix v Sydney FC A-League football match at Eden Park in 2024. Photo: Andrew Cornaga/www.photosport.nz
What they are saying
Wellington Phoenix captain Alex Rufer does not have fond memories of the previous derby matches:
"We don't want to look too much in the past but there is a lot of hurt there and disappointment from those games, and we want to have a good performance first and foremost and show our fans an aggressive attacking way of playing, and there is a lot of passion and pride involved in these games and we're really looking forward to it.
"It'll be a fiery game, a lot of emotion. I just think it's important for us with our team and a lot of the young players that we have for us to make sure that we just play our game and we play the game not the occasion."
Auckland FC coach Steve Corica said: "The record speaks for itself, doesn't it?
"The more pressure we can put on them by winning games against them - three, if we can make that four - it builds more pressure on them to come back, and that's the great thing about derbies.
"Hopefully their supporters will get right behind them because we want big crowds, we want to play in front of big crowds - especially for the derbies, there's something special."
Auckland FC forward Sam Cosgrove will play in his first New Zealand derby this week, but has played in previous derbies in English football.
"There's kind of two sides to derbies," he said. "There's that extra added atmosphere and the excitement that you get just because of the rivalry, but then you've got to calm those nerves as well, and we're there to win a game of football, and a game of football isn't built on emotion or won on emotion, so we do the work behind the scenes to make sure that we're actually prepared for that game of football."
Squads
Hiroki Sakai of Auckland FC goes off with an injury. Photo: Andrew Cornaga/www.photosport.nz
Both teams have injuries in defence, with Auckland missing captain Hiroki Sakai, out for six weeks with a hamstring injury, and the Phoenix without All White Tim Payne, who has a broken collar bone that will rule him out until nearly the end of next month.
Auckland FC: Michael Woud, Oli Sail, Joseph Knowles Hiroki Sakai, Nando Pijnaker, Francis DeVries, Adama Coulibaly, Callan Elliot, Dan Hall, Jake Girdwood-Reich, Louis Verstraete, Cameron Howieson, Felipe Gallegos, Finn Mckenlay, Oliver Middleton, Jake Brimmer, Sam Cosgrove, Guillermo May, Marlee Francois, Liam Gillion, Jesse Randall, Logan Rogerson, Jonty Bidois, Lachlan Brook.
Wellington Phoenix: Josh Oluwayemi, Alby Kelly-Heald, Corban Piper, Manjrekar James, Tim Payne, Dan Edwards, Lukas Kelly-Heald, Matthew Sheridan, Jayden Smith, Fin Conchie, Paulo Retre, Hideki Ishige, Alex Rufer, Isaac Hughes, Kazuki Nagasawa, Anaru Cassidy, Ifeanyi Eze, Nikola Mileusnic, Carlo Armiento, Gabriel Sloane-Rodrigues, Nathan Walker, Ramy Najjarine, Luke Supyk, Xuan Loke, Luke Brooke-Smith.