90 min: Five minutes of added time is indicated on the board. But surely even that isn’t time enough for Wanderers to salvage a point from this game.

89 min: Wanderers are down to nine men! Okay, that’s not quite as interesting as it first sounds – Santalab has hobbled off and because Tony Popovic has already made his three changes, Wanderers will have to make do with just nine for the closing moments. No confrontation with Abbas, then.

86 min: SUBSTITUTION: Haliti on, Mullen off for Wanderers.

83 min: SUBSTITUTION: Gameiro is taken off to a fine ovation from the locals and replaced by Ali Abbas. A goal and an assist, not a bad return for an evening’s work. As an aside, keep your eyes peeled for an Abbas-Santalab ‘coming together’. I wouldn’t put it past them, especially given the heated nature of his match.

81 min: Coffee enthusiast Jim Allison has emailed in again, writing, “Now he can go and man the coffee cart”, presumably in reference to Saba’s dismissal. It really was a silly challenge from the Brazilian, and one which now looks like losing the game for his team.

78 min: Brosque! So close to a third for Sydney! The skipper gets his head to Ryall’s cross and time almost stops as everyone watches the ball sail just wide of the far post!

76 min: SUBSTITUTION. Time for Wanderers to make another change as Kwabena Appiah comes on for Hamill.

74 min: Oooh! Ryall goes close to putting Sydney ahead for the first time tonight. But his bullet header is tipped over the bar by Covic!

73 min: Janko is next to give Wanderers the jitters as he sees a shot well blocked by Hamill. Corner to Sydney.

73 min: SUBSTITUTION. Castelen is brought off – he’s been one of Wanderers’ better players tonight – and the Dutchman is replaced by Shannon Cole.

69 min: RED CARD! SABA’S OFF! It’s all going off! Saba flies in with a dangerous challenge on Antonis and he can have no complaints as he is shown red! A melee ensues, but the remaining players manage to keep some kind of relative cool and avoid descending into a boxing match.

67 min: Ognenovski goes mad at his team-mate Janjetovic for having the temerity to try to help the stricken Hamill, who is lying on the floor struggling with cramp! Janjetovic tries to explain, but Ognenovski’s having none of it – he’s got a scary look in his eyes.

66 min: Saba delivers a free-kick into Sydney’s penalty area and once again Janjetovic fails to convince. Wanderers could do worse than just pepper the hosts’ box with long balls and see how they go.

62 min: Covic is forced to punch clear on the next corner and it’s not long before Sydney win yet another. Petkovic comes across to take it as Ognenovski once again mixes things up in the box (he was booked earlier for getting rather too physical as he awaited a corner). Western Sydney survive and are finally able to take stock as they get a goal kick.

61 min: Gameiro lets fly with an audacious volley which is deflected behind for another corner. Another one soon follows and at the moment it’s all Sydney FC.

59 min: Brosque goes in on Hamill with a strong challenge. The Wanderers man is filthy that he didn’t get a free-kick there, and so he should be. It’s a corner to Sydney instead, one which turns out to be a decent one, although nothing comes of it. Good pressure from Sydney now.

56 min: Ibini sees yellow now as he upends Saba with a muscular challenge that sends the Brazilian to the floor. Free-kick to Wanderers and this could be dangerous, 25 yards out, fairly central... but it doesn’t turn out quite the way the visitors wanted - the ball is rolled all the way through to Janjetovic.

53 min: A breathless start to the second period, and there’s smoke emanating from my keyboard. Meanwhile, Jim Allison emails in with a succinct yet valid point. “Barista,” he writes. Thanks for that, Jim, you’re absolutely right; Vitor Saba is a hipster, not a top legal professional.

51 min: Moments later and there’s a chance at the other end at Janjetovic nearly serves up a second catastrophic error, racing off his line like a headless chicken. He gets away with this one though as Bridge can’t find the empty net from distance.

Peeeep!

And we’re back under way. No changes to let you know about. More of the same please.

44 min: Vitor Saba, still fresh from his day job as a barista serving up double shot chai lattes in a Surry Hills hipster café, lets fly from distance but drags his effort wide of the post.

43 min: Gameiro is found all alone with a deep cross but as he sidefoots a volley back into the mixer, the whistle sounds and it seems someone – not him, surely – was offside.

40 min: Sydney are slowly getting their confidence back – and not before time. A goal just before half-time will do them nicely. “Worst time to concede” etc.

37 min: Entertaining stuff so far at Allianz. Goals, goalkeeping howlers, a bit of niggle and lots of noise from the stands – it’s living up to its billing. Pre-match flares aside, the FFA should be happy.

34 min: One man who doesn’t seem to get over it too easily is Brendan Santalab, who has a nibble at Ognenovski and has his name taken for his misdemeanor. That was needless, and silly.

33 min: Hamill’s got a problem here. Actually he’s got two. One, he’s injured, and two, he’s got a problem with Ognenovski, who refuses to put the ball out. He’ll get over both.

30 min: Half an hour gone and Wanderers are well in the driving seat after that rather catastrophic 10-minute period.

Guardian Australia’s data maestro Nick Evershed is at the game. And willing to share his photos with the world.

27 min: Sydney are shaky. What a turnaround from 10 minutes ago. Janjetovic looks far from commanding once again as Bridge simply gets in his way as a cross comes over. The referee comes to his aid this time, tooting on his whistle to penalize the Wanderers goalscorer.

23 min: Ryall has the dubious distinction of becoming the first man into the referee’s book tonight.

21 min: Torpor-Stanley misjudges a long ball forward and for a moment it looks like Brosque is in. But, under pressure from a defender, his first-time poke goes wide of the mark.

20 min: Well, well, well. Sydney were looking the likeliest to score first, but credit to Wanderers, and in particular Castelen, who looks like the kind of player who makes things happen. We like players who make things happen.

18 min: Castelen, perhaps having been marked out as a dangerman by Sydney, is brought to the ground once more, this time out on the right wing. The free-kick is towards the back stick and it’s put behind for a corner to Wanderers. Saba takes it, but it comes to nothing.

14 min: Castelen, who impressed in patches on his first A-League appearance last week, is taken out by a lunging challenge from Brosque. Free-kick to the Wanderers, and the Sydney skipper might be lucky not to have gone into the book for that one.

13 min: Ibini shows the other side of his game now with a careless bit of work, gifting Saba possession. In fairness to the Socceroo, he chases back and stops the Brazilian in his tracks.

9 min: Nothing comes of the corner, despite a well-struck Gameiro shot from the edge of the box, but Sydney have certainly settled the quicker of the two, after a pretty cagey opening few minutes to the game.

8 min: Ibini shows what a livewire he can be as he picks up the ball after some good work by Gameiro before firing a wicked, dipping shot over the bar! In fact, it takes a deflection and that’ll be a corner to Sydney.

6 min: Here’s a first bit of argy-bargy, involving Santalab. Free-kick to the hosts, anyway. Petkovic puts in a decent delivery to the back post, where Janko rises to head back across the face the goal, but it won’t sit down for Ibini on the volley and he fires over the bar. First half chance, nevertheless!

4 min: Does this need to be said? Sydney are in their usual sky blue, Wanderers in their red and black. Wanderers fans are behind Covic’s goal this half and they seem to be enjoying themselves already. Which is nice.

2 min: The crowd was always going to get its fair share of attention tonight – nothing wrong with that and it certainly is a fantastic advert for the A-League – but let’s not forget the quality of football. There’s enough talent on the pitch to raise the competition’s profile even further. Petkovic isn’t listening – he humps the ball forward, all the way into the arms of Covic.

Peeeeep!

1 min: Here we go! We’re under way at Allianz!

You can tell the stadium is rocking, even with the volume on the telly turned down until kick-off. That’s saying something. Jumping fans, loudhailers, smoke from flares, coloured bits of plastic being held up… this is what greets the Wanderers as they head out into the cauldron first. Sydney FC follow moments later, and the two teams face off, in a weird way. Anyway, nearly ready to go.

It’s a Guardian Australia sport double whammy tonight. You could even justifiably call it an extravaganza, if you like. Paul Connolly is liveblogging the latest installment of the car crash that is Wallabies rugby at the moment. They’re in action against the All Blacks in the final Bledisloe Test of 2014. It could get ugly. If you can bear checking in occasionally, you can do so here.

Anyone looking forward to watching Marc Janko take his bow tonight? It’s not often the captain of a European national side comes to play in the A-League. (Even one ranked below Wales.) Anyway, here’s a snapshot of what he’s capable of:

My colleague Mike Ticher reports the scene at Central Station:

https://twitter.com/mikewsc1/status/523371678454149120

Line-ups

Sydney FC: 20.Vedran Janjetovic (GK), 2.Sebastian Ryall, 3.Sasa Ognenovski, 6.Nikola Petkovic, 16.Alex Gersbach, 17.Terry Antonis, 8.Milos Dimitrijevic, 11.Bernie Ibini, 14.Alex Brosque (c), 7.Corey Gameiro, 21.Mark Janko. Subs: 1.Ivan Necevski, 4.Pedj Bojic, 22.Ali Abbas 19.Nick Carle, Christopher Naumoff.

Western Sydney Wanderers: 1.Ante Covic (GK), 3.Daniel Mullen, 4.Nikolai Topor-Stanley (c), 5.Brendan Hamill, 6.Antony Golec, 18.Iacopo La Rocca, 8.Mateo Poljak, 10.Vitor Saba, 17.Romeo Castelen, 19.Mark Bridge, 22.Brendon Santalab. Subs: 20.Dean Bouzanis (GK), 2.Shannon Cole, 23.Jason Trifiro, 7.Labinot Haliti, 14.Kwabena Appiah.

The man with the whistle between his lips tonight is Kris Griffiths-Jones, and he will be assisted by Sarah Ho and Leigh Pigram.

Team news

With the international break now done and dusted, we’ll be treated to the sight of several globe-trotting players for the first time this fledgling season.

Bernie Ibini and marquee signing Mark Janko make their A-League debuts for the Sky Blues but Ali Abbas - fresh from duty with Iraq - has to settle for a place on the bench. Otherwise, Shane Smeltz again misses out after he tweaked a groin in training before last week’s match and Rhyan Grant is out with a knee problem.

For the Wanderers, the return of Socceroo Nikolai Topor-Stanley can’t come soon enough, given the porosity of their back line in last week’s 4-1 reverse. But Tony Popovic is still without Tomi Juric (groin), Golgol Mubrahtu (knee) and Matthew Spiranovic (ankle). And Nikita Rukavytsya will have to wait another week to take his bow in red and black as the Socceroo is not yet fully fit.

Roll up, roll up, the newest jewel in the A-League’s increasingly sparkly crown is set to light up Allianz Stadium tonight. It’s the Sydney derby between the seemingly not-so-flash-any-more-but-rather-more-obdurate-than-we’ve-become-used-to Sydney FC and Western Sydney Wanderers, a team that looked like anything but the Asian Champions League finalists they are during last week’s disappointing curtain-raiser against Melbourne Victory.

This may be a youthful rivalry, but with a sell-out 40,000-plus crowd anticipated at Moore Park, it is already undoubtedly a fierce, legitimate and meaningful one. And with international players back this week, a marquee signing to make his debut and early season bragging rights in the harbour city up for grabs, this really is a hamburger with the lot. Extra cheese, bacon, pickles, you name it. Mouthwatering stuff.

But enough of the hyperbole for the moment (come on, it’s difficult not to get excited, even when you’re sat on an ergonomic office chair, alone at Guardian Australia HQ, watching the pre-match frivolities on the goggle box and wishing you were at least somewhere near the action), this is a genuinely an important match for both teams, despite it being just their second outing of the season.

Sydney FC started with a fairly encouraging draw last weekend, at home to Melbourne City, while a day earlier the Wanderers were pretty abject at Etihad Stadium. Tonight’s hosts will be looking to build on their opening performance, while Western Sydney’s aim will not just be to avoid another hammering – they legitimately hold aspirations of securing a third win in four games against their rivals at this venue.

Anyway, please do feel free to get in touch tonight – you can get me on the email and twitter links above. It would be good to hear your thoughts on the game, the A-League season or football in general. Whatever, really.

Mike will be along shortly with his blow-by-blow account of tonight’s big match at Allianz Stadium, but until he settles into the hot seat, have a read of Paul Connolly’s musings ahead of the first Sydney derby of the season.

The margin of defeat and the subdued nature of the Western Sydney Wanderers’ performance against Melbourne Victory last week was both unprecedented and uncharacteristic but Tony Popovic is not the type to jump out of a window at the first sign of smoke. The Wanderers were due a lull after their ACL heroics, they were missing key personnel, and they came up against a side whose execution matched their resolve. “I don’t think the game was a reality check at all,” Popovic said afterwards. “We lost a game of football ... we know what we have to do.”

Deliciously, the Wanderers get a chance to respond against their cross-town rivals, Sydney FC, and it adds an extra level of intrigue to the always atmospheric clash which looks set to be a sell-out (news that, earlier this week, prompted tiresome dick measuring from a giddy David Gallop and then NRL head of commercial Paul Kind, who defended NRL crowds at the SFS on account of shrinkage caused by a greater number of Sydney derbies). Of particular interest is the set-up of each team in light of the return of a number of players who, in a case of terrible timing prompted by the A-League’s eagerness to make a start, missed the opening round on account of the international “break”: obdurate centre-half Nikolai Topor-Stanley for the Wanderers, “marquee Marc” Janko, Bernie Ibini and Ali Abbas for Sydney. Throw in the return from injury of Tomi Juric (Wanderers) and Shane Smeltz (Sydney), and this game has the feel of a do-over. The Wanderers in particular will be keen to make the most of it, not least because it will be their last hit-out before the first leg of their ACL final on Saturday week – a game Graham Arnold mischievously suggested on Thursday would be distracting for the Wanderers.