Wellington are set for a bumper A-League Women home debut but Melbourne City are ready to spoil the party.
The Phoenix spent last season based in NSW but will play at Sky Stadium for the first time on Sunday, when they are eyeing a 10,000-strong crowd.
City coach Rado Vidosic hoped that meant all the pressure would be on the home side and backed his young squad to handle the hostile crowd.
"When you're playing in front of a big home crowd, it's more pressure on you," Vidosic told reporters.
"Some of our girls obviously played at the U20 World Cup in front of 22,000 in Costa Rica, and they did really well, one of them was (player) of the match so it's not that they have never faced anything like that.
"But I think the pressure is equal. I don't think that the players will have that on their mind when they go out to play."
Injury-hit City will be without striker Hannah Wilkinson, captain Emma Checker (knee) and recruit Karly Roestbakken (foot).
Checker was named in the squad but will miss the trip to Wellington.
Phoenix captain Lily Alfeld (knee) will also miss the game but watch on from the stands and expects her teammates to thrive on home turf.
"So excited. We were hoping last year we would get back across the border but that never happened so I think it's really exciting that we get to have this homecoming," she told AAP.
"The club's done a lot to promote the game and really try to get a lot of attention and traction and hopefully we'll get a big crowd."
City also didn't travel to Perth last season so their younger players will welcome the new experience of a four-hour plane trip.
"For some of them, it's their first time they need to use the passports for the trip. So that's a good experience," Vidosic said.
"It's an early morning training in Wellington. But the good thing is we are playing on the beautiful stadium, apparently they are going to have a good crowd as well.
"So I think it's going to be a cracking game, we hope that they're gonna have enough supporters to make it a little bit more special."
