Football
AAP 7y

Barbarouses fresh and ready to lead Wellington Phoenix to victory

Fresh from an unexpected week off, Wellington Phoenix striker Kosta Barbarouses is taking an uncomplicated approach into Sunday's eighth-round A-League clash against Melbourne City.

"We're not going to worry too much about what they're doing the whole game," he said.

"We'll focus on how we can hurt them instead of how they're going to hurt us."

Barbarouses had been ready to step up for the Phoenix last weekend against Melbourne Victory, but the previous Monday's devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake forced the match's postponement.

The unexpected week off came at the perfect time, giving the 26-year-old Barbarouses and four of his Phoenix teammates extra time to recover from their tour of duty with the All Whites in home and away World Cup qualifiers against New Caledonia.

"It would have been a very tough ask -- we'd always put our hands up to play, but this gives us an extra week to be here with the squad," he said.

Wellington travel to Melbourne off back-to-back wins over the Newcastle Jets and Central Coast Mariners, but Barbarouses says City offer a new set of challenges.

They sit second on the A-League ladder to Wellington's eighth, boast a star-studded line-up, and have been stung by their latest result, a 1-1 with Western Sydney Wanderers.

"They've got an interesting way of playing but there's places where we can hurt them, I think.

"It's going to be a tough match -- they overload the midfield, they take risks, so we'll look to capitalise on that.

"It's going to be a massive test for us. They seem to have changed how they play a lot this year, and I think that's surprised a lot of teams."

Wellington have overcome the winless four-game streak that started their season, but Barbarouses says a win over Melbourne City will show they can compete against a top-four side.

"I think we can really kick on from here -- maybe this is the start to our season, a few weeks late.

"I think we're looking good and looking like the team we think we are."

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