Peninsula Power and Sydney United go head-to-head in search of a spot in the last in four in Australia Cup Quarter Final action at AJ Kelly Park on Sunday afternoon.
Both sides are on their best ever run in the competition with United finally getting past the Round of 16 at the sixth attempt while a pair of Round of 32 appearances were previously Power’s best ever finish.
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After beating NWS Spirit in the Round of 32, two goals in the space of 30 seconds saw Power come from behind to beat Green Gully 2-1 in the last 16.
English midfielder Joshua Woolley scored directly from a corner in the 79th minute before Alex Smith was on hand to tap home after Liam Driscoll could only parry Solomon Weldemariam's dipping long range effort less than 30 seconds later.
37-year-old former A-League midfielder Smith, who also coaches Power’s women’s side had appeared just twice off the bench all season prior to scoring the winner in his sides Round of 16 win.
United defeated Monaro Panthers 3-0 in the Round of 32 before pulling off the biggest cupset of the competition so far with victory over defending A-League Champions, Western United in the last 16.
The sides could not be split after 120 minutes having traded goals through Tariq Maia and Connor Pain before Sydney United prevailed on penalties with Cristian Gonzalez scoring to winning spot-kick to spark wild celebrations at the Sydney United Sports Centre.
Power rounded out their NPL Queensland campaign with a 3-1 win over Gold Coast United on Wednesday night thanks to goals from Jesse Rigby, Hayden McHenery and Daniel Cuttler.
Wednesday’s win sees Power finish the season in third position and sets up a Semi Final clash against Gold Coast Knights for Rick Coghlan’s side.
Sydney United wrapped up their league campaign in July finishing in eighth position on the NPL New South ladder.
The winner of Sunday’s Quarter Final will be the first non A-League side to reach the final four since the competition moved to an open draw at the beginning of the 2021 Final Rounds.
Opta Stats: #PENvSUD
- Peninsula Power won their only previous Australia Cup fixture against a team from New South Wales, defeating NWS Spirit FC 4-1 in the 2022 Round of 32; they will become the fourth Queensland team to play at the Quarter Final stage of the Australia Cup.
- Sydney United 58 FC have gone to extra-time five times in the Australia Cup, the joint-third most times of any team in the competition and more than any other member federation club; they have gone on to win three of those five games.
- Peninsula Power have a shot conversion rate of 25% in the 2022 Australia Cup, the highest of any team in the competition to have played at least two games and more than 10 percentage points higher than Sydney United 58 FC (14%).
- Peninsula Power have scored 50% of their six goals from outside the box in the 2022 Australia Cup, the highest rate of any team to have scored more than a single goal at the tournament.
- Danijel Nizic (Sydney United 58 FC) has a 92% save rate in the Australia Cup this season, the highest of any goalkeeper to have played in more than one game; indeed, his 12 total saves are also the joint-second-most of any keeper.
Peninsula Power v Sydney United
Date: Sunday 28 August 2022
Time: 3:00pm AEST
Venue: AJ Kelly Park
Tickets: CLICK HERE
