{"id":375926,"date":"2026-04-12T13:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T13:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/375926\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T13:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T13:14:08","slug":"wellington-phoenixs-faint-a-league-playoff-hopes-fade-after-costly-melbourne-city-defeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/375926\/","title":{"rendered":"Wellington Phoenix\u2019s faint A-League playoff hopes fade after costly Melbourne City defeat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"jfCtLXHy\" style=\"display:none\">Interim Nix manager Chris Greenacre is not giving up just yet.<\/p>\n<p class=\"jfCtLXHy\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cWe might have to rely on other results now, but we\u2019ll certainly try,\u201d Greenacre said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"jfCtLXHy\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cWhen you\u2019re relying on other teams, things can slip away from you, but it\u2019s vital that we take care of our own business.<\/p>\n<p class=\"jfCtLXHy\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cIt is what it is right now. We\u2019ll dust ourselves down and go again. We\u2019ve got a tough game against the Western Sydney Wanderers next week in Christchurch and we\u2019ll be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"jfCtLXHy\" style=\"display:none\">The Phoenix entered the match full of confidence, riding a three-game winning streak under Greenacre.<\/p>\n<p class=\"jfCtLXHy\" style=\"display:none\">That run included a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/sport\/football\/wellington-phoenix\/wellington-phoenix-claim-first-away-win-over-melbourne-victory-in-nine-years-to-sit-on-cusp-of-a-league-playoffs\/JM6EINBMDBHAXIZFX4DOX5YEZU\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/sport\/football\/wellington-phoenix\/wellington-phoenix-claim-first-away-win-over-melbourne-victory-in-nine-years-to-sit-on-cusp-of-a-league-playoffs\/JM6EINBMDBHAXIZFX4DOX5YEZU\/\">breakthrough win over Melbourne Victory<\/a> \u2013 their first win in the Victorian capital in nine years \u2013 which had lifted them to the brink of the top six.<\/p>\n<p class=\"jfCtLXHy\" style=\"display:none\">But they struggled to fire in attack, failing to register a single shot on target.<\/p>\n<p class=\"jfCtLXHy\" style=\"display:none\">City capitalised, scoring in each half through Aziz Behich and Marcus Younis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"jfCtLXHy\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThey were probably the better side today,\u201d Greenacre said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"jfCtLXHy\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cWe huffed and puffed at times and created a couple of half-chances, but never really tested the goalkeeper.<\/p>\n<p class=\"jfCtLXHy\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThey\u2019re a strong team, and we knew it would be difficult. In the end, they deserved the points.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"jfCtLXHy\" style=\"display:none\">The Phoenix return to action next Saturday in Christchurch against the bottom-placed Wanderers in what is now a must-win clash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Interim Nix manager Chris Greenacre is not giving up just yet. \u201cWe might have to rely on other&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[191776,74,27500,31100,2199,9935,5506,45609,150411,143392,79912,3012,123,20562,111,139,69,8143,57694,196113,89431,213,50488,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-375926","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-aami","9":"tag-after","10":"tag-aleague","11":"tag-champions","12":"tag-city","13":"tag-costly","14":"tag-defeat","15":"tag-defending","16":"tag-fade","17":"tag-faint","18":"tag-hanging","19":"tag-hopes","20":"tag-melbourne","21":"tag-mens","22":"tag-new-zealand","23":"tag-newzealand","24":"tag-nz","25":"tag-park","26":"tag-phoenix","27":"tag-phoenixs","28":"tag-playoff","29":"tag-sports","30":"tag-thread","31":"tag-wellington"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}