Melbourne City’s A-League Women’s finals campaign has been rocked with confirmation Nigerian forward Chinaza Uchendu must serve a season-ending suspension for lashing out against the Wanderers last month.

As premiers City prepare for Saturday’s first leg of their semi-final with Melbourne Victory at AAMI Park, Football Australia confirmed the fiery striker would not be allowed to return during the finals campaign because of the “assault of a player” during the March 22 clash with Western Sydney,

Uchendu became involved in a heated altercation during the match after a collision in the penalty area and shoved a defender.

She was issued a straight red card and also came under scrutiny for an offensive gesture when she stuck her middle finger up to the crowd as she was leaving the field.

The match review panel proposed a four-match ban, but after referral to the FA Disciplinary and Ethics Committee the sanction was reduced to three games. FA added a further one-match ban for the gesture on Friday which City accepted.

But City will not be deterred by her absence, with the triple premiers determined to complete their dominant season.

“We’ve done what we needed to do throughout the season to win the Premiership, and I think now we’re heading into finals, which is a completely different ball game,” City captain Rebekah Stott said.

“It’s do what you need to do to win that game. So that’s our goal. Is to obviously win.

“I think especially last season, we had a lot of pressure on us. But this season as well, to get that Premiership, we had a lot of pressure out of the Champions League games.

“You learn to deal with that pressure, and I think that kind of experience we can take into the final games, and, yeah, use to our advantage.”

Victory, who secured their semi-final spot with a 3-1 win over Canberra United last week, are confident they can take the battle to City. They led in their first encounter this season before succumbing to a 2-1 defeat, while the teams drew 0-all when they last met in February.

ROAR RIDING WAVE OF MOMENTUM

Brisbane defender Angie Beard believes the underdog Roar can ride the wave of momentum from their stunning elimination final performance into Sunday’s semi-final first leg against Wellington Phoenix at Spencer Park.

The Roar hit full stride with the 3-0 victory over Adelaide and while they’ve not beaten the Phoenix this season, Beard believes the Brisbane team are finding ways to push through their most challenging obstacles.

“Honestly the girls are really excited,” Beard said.

“The whole season has been a rollercoaster … (our mantra has been) you see adversity you go through it and come out the other side a bit stronger.
“(Against Adelaide) I don’t think I’ve seen us look so fluid in attack.

“I don’t want to jinx it, but I’m confident in the girls and confident in the coaching staff.”

The Roar’s stunning win last week is perhaps the big advantage they take into this first semi, especially as the Phoenix has not played a competitive game since April 3.

Wellington coach Bev Priestman said it has been tough for the players to sit back during the week off, with nerves building towards their semi-final.

And for a club about to play finals for the first time, it brings with it a different set of expectations and pressure.

“To be honest, it was torture hanging around,” said Priestman.

“But I feel like the minute that we knew who we had, I think everything’s flipped now.

“I think a big part of pressure and a big moment is preparedness, and I think what we do very well is prepare as a group, and we’ve done a lot of work on penalties and closing a game, chasing a game, you know, all those sorts of things.

“But now it’s just (focusing) on the team in front of us and tidying up some things.

“We played a game at the weekend. It was very clunky, I think, given some of the players hadn’t played for three weeks because of injuries and things.”

A-League Women’s Semi-finals (first leg)

Saturday May 2

Melbourne Victory v Melbourne City, AAMI Park, 5pm

Sunday May 3

Brisbane Roar v Wellington Phoenix, Spencer Park, 5pm

Originally published as Melbourne City’s title hopes rocked by season-ending ban for star striker