When? Sunday 1 November, 2 pm kick off

Where? Riverhills Park, Pakuranga, Auckland

Previous encounters: 2019 saw Auckland Football back up a 2-1 win over Central in Palmerston North (courtesy of second half goals from Lizzie Anton and Britney Cunningham-Lee to cancel out Mikaela Boxall’s opener) with a win by the very same scoreline. In the Auckland leg 2019 women’s domestic player of the year Steph Skilton netted twice to negate an early goal from Central youngster Natalie Olson.  

What they say:

Barry Scullion, Central Football head coach: “The players and staff are excited to get started, we’re really grateful that we still have the opportunity to play in this competition, given everything that’s been going on globally.

“The two games we played AFF last year finished in 2-1 defeats, so they were really close games. This year is a bit harder to prepare for – AFF has new coaches and players, so most of the tactical focus on preparation has been around us. We expect a tough game, but we really relish the challenge it will bring, and we’re looking forward to getting started.”

Aaron McFarland, Auckland Football head coach: “We hope to drive the standards for women's football at the ISPS Handa Women’s Premiership level. This is the highest level of domestic football for woman, and we want to set a standard for what a programme should look like for this level of football

“The team's looking really sharp. Physically they've been really well-prepared, we've had one preseason match against Northern where we performed really well. But at the same time, there's time to grow into our playing style.”

Squads as at Friday 30 October

Auckland Football squad

1 Lily ALFELD (GK) 16 Kate HANNAY (GK), 2 Jess PHILPOT, 4 Elizabeth (Lizzie) ANTON, 5 Emma LEAMING, 7 Maisy DEWELL, 8 Tayla O'BRIEN, 10 Ava Teresa COLLINS, 13 Paige SATCHELL, 14 Emma PIJNENBURG, 17 Alosi BLOOMFIELD, 18 Ella RUSS, 19 Casey Elizabeth BERRIER, 21 Emma FLETCHER, 23 Rina HIRANO, 24 Arisa TAKEDA

Central Football squad

1 Brooke BENNETT (GK) 2 Charlotte LANCASTER, 3 Samantha WOOLLEY, 4 Jana NIEDERMAYR, 5 Florence MACINTYRE, 6 Abby RANKIN, 7 Kaitlyn WATTS, 8 Eve BARRY, 9 Mikaela (Boxy) BOXALL (C), 10 Aniela JENSEN, 11 Jessie FALLOON, 12 Grace SMITH, 13 Natalie OLSON, 14 Georgie FURNELL, 15 Rebekah TREWHITT

Officials

Referee: Eric YU, Assistant referee 1: Rebecca BLAKEMAN, Assistant referee 2: Daniel NEVILLE, 4th official: William ROBERTS

Article added: Friday 30 October 2020