There was ecstasy for Adelaide United and agony for Brisbane Roar in Friday night's first elimination final. Who is going to be laughing and who is going to be crying after this one?
Why you should watch it
Now that we know the winner will play Melbourne Victory next weekend, it is going to be very interesting to see who goes through.
Will it be City, facilitating FFA's dream date of an all-Melbourne semi-final, or Wellington, pitting its two-time championship-winning coach while at Victory, Ernie Merrick, against his old club, now coached by his former captain, Kevin Muscat?
The match itself is bound to be an intriguing one.
Phoenix has been getting itself into trouble in the first half of matches, leaving it under pressure to get out of trouble after the interval. It can't keep playing that way - not in an elimination game. It has to push the button in the first half and try to play from in front.
City hasn't played well recently, but it is an enigmatic team. It knew well ahead of the regular season ending it would be in the finals as either the fifth or sixth-placed team. Did it just lose some intensity that will automatically be regained now that it's playing for keeps again?
What happened last time they played
Not much on the scoreboard, but it was a very entertaining 0-0 draw at AAMI Park in round 25.
Both teams had their moments, including a missed penalty by Wellington when Burns shot meekly and straight at the goalkeeper, but City was slightly the better team.
Phoenix goalkeeper Glen Moss was the best player on the field, making numerous excellent saves to ensure his team at least a share of the points. Aaron Mooy, the City playmaker who has gone from strength to strength this season, was very impressive as well.
Key battles
Wellington has got to find a way to restrict the influence of Mooy, who can kill you two ways.
It has to try to pin him back in his own half as much as possible, but when he does get the ball in Wellington's half it has to block his runs and at the same time pick up his support players.
Mooy will do damage on his own if allowed, but he weighs up his options very quickly and if there is no avenue for himself he is lightning when it comes to getting the ball into the path of a team-mate ahead of him.
Wellington's greatest attacking strength is the ability of its two wide men - Burns and Michael McGlinchey - to run the ball into the penalty box and either open a window for themselves to shoot or pick out a team-mate.
They can be a nightmare for the fullbacks who are playing on them and also the central defenders who can become torn between picking up the support players or covering for the fullback in case he is beaten.
Why Phoenix will win
At its best, it is a dynamic attacking outfit that spent most of the season in the top four and was even leading for several weeks before a late-season stumble in the heat of the battle for positions on a tightly-packed ladder.
The finals are a whole new ball-game and that's good news for Phoenix, because it will have allowed it to draw a line in the sand after some disappointing recent results. The equation is simple now - it has to concentrate on getting the best out of itself in a knockout game.
Why City will win
It has the ability to put the squeeze on and keep things tight in games, which could easily frustrate a free-wheeling team like Wellington.
It has a solid central defence, potential game-breakers, in Mooy and Robert Koren, and a front man, in Josh Kennedy, who is a big-occasion player, having scored important goals for the Socceroos.
Plus, there is a sense about City that it feels like it really belongs in the finals. If it is right, then that self-confidence could take it a long way in a game like this.
What the players are saying
Wellington has conceded an early goal in way too many games recently. It has to buck that trend.
"In finals football you won’t be able to concede early goals like that and recover from it," captain Andrew Durante said. "We’ve worked really hard on formation, set pieces and all the little details to make sure we’re ready to go for Sunday, and we are.
"We’ve got a set of boys who are fired up and want to do well in front of a home crowd."
City lost its last two regular-season games by an aggregate score of 7-2 against Perth Glory and Adelaide United. City goalkeeper Tando Velaphi said the team must ignore those results and move on.
"You just have to," he said. "It's not what we wanted from the last couple of games, but finals is a new ball game. We've looked at what we need to improve on and everyone's up for the fight and the challenge."
What the coaches are saying
Wellington coach Ernie Merrick said his team's focus has got to be on doing what it does well and not obsessing with the opposition.
"Don’t let teams prevent us from playing our best football," Merrick said. "Last weekend was a good example. We had more possession, 100 more passes, but Sydney prevented us from getting into scoring areas. We can’t allow teams to stop us from doing that.
"With Melbourne City it’s not so much how they play, it’s how we play, and not stopping what we do because of how the opposition line up."
City coach John van 't Schip is hoping his team responds to what he described as the "good pressure" of playing in a finals match.
"The big games are, in my opinion, the most beautiful ones and the best ones," van 't Schip said. "The pressure is there to build and get to a very good performance."
The villain
City defender Connor Chapman is still only young, but he doesn't mind putting himself about physically. It was Chapman who collided with Moss in a battle for the ball the last time these teams met, leaving the Wellington 'keeper with a corked thigh.
Chapman doesn't mind arguing the point with referees, either. He could easily get offside with the Wellington crowd, not that it would bother him.
The hero
Wellington playmaker Roly Bonevacia missed a penalty for Wellington while it was still 0-0 in what ended up a 2-1 loss to Sydney FC last weekend, but that doesn't change the fact his contribution to the team's cause this season has been enormous.
Bonevacia will still go out to try to make something happen against City and if he comes up with some individual brilliance that results in a meaningful goal his team-mates are bound to swamp him with congratulations.
The match in numbers
Wellington has a clear overall advantage in clashes with Melbourne City, but City has fared much better recently.
The two teams have met 15 times, for six wins to Phoenix, three to City and six draws. In Wellington, where they have met eight times, it's five wins to Phoenix, one to City and two draws.
The last 10 overall clashes have resulted in four Wellington wins, one to City and five draws, but in the last five it's a win apiece and three draws.
The last five clashes in Wellington have seen three Phoenix wins, one to City and one draw, but in the last three it's a win apiece and a draw.
The verdict
It is hard to get a handle on this game. Wellington was disappointing at home towards the end of the regular season and City was disappointing away.
Presuming both teams lift and we get a good game, with the key players performing well, in the search for a difference I go back to the fact Phoenix has an abundance of potential goal-scorers and City is not a high-scoring team.
The only teams City scored more goals than this season were the bottom three teams in the league - Central Coast Mariners, Western Sydney Wanderers and Newcastle Jets.
I'm tipping Phoenix to come up with the necessary goal - or goals - to win in normal time, with Burns returning to the score-sheet.
