Mombaerts has every right to feel cautious ahead of this Saturday's meeting with the Reds at Coopers Stadium with City's last visit to the City of Churches one that they will not want to repeat. 

Travelling to Coopers Stadium for the final of the FFA Cup on that occasion, City went into the half-time break that evening down 1-0 to Al Hassan Toure’s 25th-minute opener but proceeded to disintegrate in the second-half and hammered into a 4-0 defeat. 

This time though City are in positive form ahead of the coming re-match. In second place on the A-League ladder, they are undefeated in their last four games and have kept clean sheets in their past two fixtures – a 2-0 win over Newcastle Jets and a 0-0 stalemate with Perth Glory.

Of course, City were in a run of stellar run of form the last time they went to Adelaide with the FFA Cup final loss Mombaerts’ first at the club.

Winners of a madcap 4-3 game against Western United last week, the Reds have been boosted by the addition of Stefan Mauk ahead of Saturday’s clash - the 24-year-old returning home to South Australia after securing a release from Brisbane Roar – and will be looking to make it three wins over Melbourne sides in as many weeks.

Alas, they will be without exciting prospect and FFA Cup hero Toure, who returned from the recent AFC U23 Championships with a stress fracture in his foot and has been ruled out for an indefinite period. 

“We know Adelaide is a strong team,” Mombaerts said. “Especially at a technical level, very high. Also, on man-marking, it’s difficult to face because they are man-marking all over the field.

“But we know this, and I hope we have prepared well, as we did for the Perth game, so we are not surprised. It’s a game where we have to be fit – we are – and we have to be tactically to control the game. We will try to do this.

“It’s better to control what we can do; we focus on what we can do. We can have a response, but we have also to adapt against the strengths of the opponent.

“That’s why it’s better for us to have better control with our possession-based football but also be careful when we turn the ball over and in transition because Adelaide is typically a transition team.

“We have to [account for] this but it’s also better to control with our style of play so we have to be confident with what we can do on the ball.

Fresh off helping Australia’s men’s U23 side qualify for their first Olympic Games since 2008, Olyroos Tom Glover, Ramy Najjarine, Connor Metcalfe and Denis Genreau have all returned to Melbourne this week and been named in Mombaerts’ squad for the trip to Adelaide. 

The most likely to come straight back into the XI, Glover started every game between the sticks for Graham Arnold’s side during that tournament, whereas Metcalfe, Najjarine and Genreau’s minutes came in more sporadic bursts.

“Just Glover played a lot of games,” Mombaerts said on Friday. “For the others, Connor didn’t play enough. Denis also. Ramy maybe a little more.

“First, we are happy for the qualification because the Olympics are a big event. So, congratulations for that. Now we have to reorganise and help the players to come back in our squad.

“They just arrived. I think it’s too early to say [if they start].

"Genreau [who suffered an ankle injury in Thailand but was declared physically healthy by Mombaerts] has a lack of competition games, a lack of training. Denis is, of all the players, the player in the most need of [fitness] to get to a particular level.”

Regardless of the fitness level the four possess, however, they all trained with City’s senior side on Friday and are available for selection. 

Yet it's not all roses for Mombaerts, with captain Scott Jamieson set to miss Saturday’s fixture through suspension thanks to an accumulation of yellow cards, Adrian Luna unlikely to be risked with a slight knee injury and teenager Stefan Colakovski nursing a sore groin. 

According to the City gaffer, Jamieson’s absence is set to open the door for Scott Galloway to come in and play at left-back.

“As we go to Adelaide they will not be surprised if we play with Scott Galloway as the left fullback because he has played this position in a lot of games,” he said.

“He can play on the right or the left so it’s a good option for us.”