Melbourne Victory coach Kevin Muscat will be looking to take advantage of his sides renewed belief and prove that they can go toe-to-toe with Asia’s finest.
The club will face off against K-League side Jeonbuk Motors at Docklands Stadium on Wednesday night with Muscat excited about the prospect of matching up against a quality outfit, despite the perceived slow tempo that stigmatizes Asian football.
“The football is different in Asia, they play a different brand,” Muscat said during yesterday’s ACL press conference.
“You might think that it’s a slower tempo but once you see these guys in transition tomorrow night, there’s nothing slow about it.
“They are technically sound, and quick in transition.”
Melbourne come into tonight’s match against the Korean’s off the back of a 3-1 win over Central Coast Mariners and will be looking to continue their good form.
They’ll also be looking to atone for their horrendous second half display against Guangzhou Evergrande in ACL Matchday One in which they shipped four goals in a nightmare second half.
They had the reigning Asian Champions League winners shell-shocked as they strolled their way to a 2-0 half-time lead, before the Chinese powerhouse took control of the match.
Muscat saw enough encouraging signs in that first half to suggest his side has what it takes to compete at the highest level of Asian football.
“If we can’t take some belief out of that first-half performance, you can’t take belief out of anything,” he said.
“That [first half] was as good as we’ve played. It gave us a lot of confidence but I don’t want to get too excited about losing 4-2.”
Mark Milligan, who’s seen his side concede goals in it’s last 14 matches (including that match against Guanzhou), said despite their obvious defensive concerns Victory needed to improve all across the park.
“More of our defensive woes came from our ability going forward,” he said.
“It starts at the front – it’s definitely a team effort defensively.”
In regards to improvement for the younger squad members, the Victory skipper believes the Champions League is a perfect breeding ground for their development.
“We took a lot from the first game, not only myself, the young boys took a lot from that second half,” Milligan said.
‘’The second half didn’t end the way we wanted it to, but players learnt about being able to make the right decisions, lessons you can’t get from training.
‘’There were only a few of us who had played in the ACL before. It’s the only way to learn, to play in it, be involved and be taught that way.’’
In team news, the Victory defence will again be shuffled around in what seems to be a weekly occurrence, with Nick Ansell available and full-back Adama Traore also a chance to return.
Centre-back Adrian Leijer also returned to training after suffering a facial fracture, but Muscat was quick to rule him out for a return against Jeonbuk declaring the ex-captain out for “the immediate future”.
Melbourne Victory are at home as they take on Jeonbuk Motors of Korea in their ACL encounter. Kick-off is scheduled for 7:30 at Docklands Stadium.