It’s been a remarkable turnaround for Adelaide United, who after finishing near the bottom last season ended up in fifth spot this term.

Ahead of Sunday's elimination final against bitter rivals Melbourne Victory, Reds midfielder Nathan Konstandopoulos told FourFourTwo he sees a chink in their interstate opponent's armour.

“They like to stop and start the game,” said the Adelaide local. 

“They are hard at the ball, but we know that if we just focus on ourselves and stick to our structure and our coaching instructions that we will play a very good game and we will fight to the end.

“It’s incredible that we get to play in such a big game against our main rivals.

"Since I was young I’ve always known how big the rivalry has been between Melbourne Victory and Adelaide United and to play our first final against them is massive."

After being on the fringes for the last couple of seasons, this term Konstandopoulos has had a breakthrough campaign with 22 appearances over the 27-round season.

And the 22-year-old says he has thrived playing under former Bundesliga and current  Adelaide coach Marco Kurz.

“The boss has stressed that my role in the team is not just about attacking but defending and staying structured and being very disciplined,” Konstandopoulos said.

“We play a very structured style, so I like to play in the midfield by defensively keeping our shape working and working hard from box-to-box.

"But I also like to be an attacking threat, getting in between the lines and making forward runs into the box and scoring a couple more goals and assisting when I can as well.”

With the elimination final being played at AAMI park in Melbourne, Adelaide must defeat Victory in front of their own fans.

However, Konstandopoulos feels United’s 2-1 defeat in the round 10 derby bodes well for the Reds chances on Sunday night.

“It does give us confidence knowing that we have beaten them before away and we can definitely do it again,” he says.

“We’ll watch the videos from those games and learn from our mistakes and put it good use in the game this week.

“Even the result over the weekend against Western Sydney Wanderers is also very positive and gives us confidence as well.

“Melbourne Victory’s home form hasn’t been perfect, so based on our previous game that we played at Etihad we know that we can bring the game to them and put in a good performance and get a result.”