Auckland FC have crowned themselves kings of New Zealand football after destroying Wellington 6-1, ‘silencing’ their Kiwi rivals by securing a season whitewash in their debut A-League Men campaign.
Already having taken maximum points from two previous meetings, Steve Corica’s side were ruthless in putting down their foes at Mt Smart Stadium on Saturday afternoon, a hat-trick from Neyder Moreno and brace from Logan Rogerson powering them to a famous win in front of a record 27,009 crowd.
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“There was a lot of talk at the start of the season, a bit of banter going back and forth,” Rogerson told Sky Sport NZ.
“We’ve kind of silenced the critics and silenced Wellington; we’ve beaten them three times and pretty convincingly over the three games.”
The result stretched Auckland’s lead atop the table to eight points as they continued their premiership push and heaped further pressure on Phoenix boss Giancarlo Italiano.
His side slipped further into the mire with the defeat, languishing in 11th place as the memories of last season’s second-placed finish fade as they struggle to deal with injuries to key players.
“I was actually really happy with the first half an hour,” Italiano told Sky Sport NZ.
“Then we conceded and we had a period of ten minutes where I don’t know what happened; there were some really soft goals.”
Twice finding himself in the right place at the right time, Moreno opened the floodgates for the hosts with goals in the 31st and 36th minutes, before Rogerson grabbed his first of the game when he ghosted free for a back-post header in the 40th.
Luke Brooke-Smith gave the visitors some hope after the restart when he became the Phoenix’s youngest-ever goalscorer in the 49th minute.
However, the momentum was soon snuffed out when the 16-year-old had a pass across his penalty area snatched by Moreno, with the Colombian firing a deflected effort into the bottom corner for his third in the 61st.
A long-range laser from Rogerson piled on further pain in the 80th minute, and the rout was completed by Jesse Randall in the 93rd, putting a bow on a humiliating defeat for the Phoenix and dominant opening season in the league’s newest rivalry for Auckland.
“We knew how much they wanted to come into this game and to beat us,” Corica said.
“But we didn’t give them any opportunity today.”