Tony Popovic and his squad are relishing the prospect of another away challenge in the form of Sunday’s eagerly-anticipated clash with Melbourne City at AAMI Park.
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Glory will head to the Victorian capital still unbeaten on their travels this term following last weekend’s 1-1 draw at Western Sydney Wanderers when only a stoppage-time goal prevented them from claiming all three points.
And Popovic is adamant that his charges are raring to go again.
“We actually defended very well against the Wanderers,” he said, “and if you look at the whole game, we restricted them to maybe the odd off-chance and the goal they did score was a soft goal.
“We conceded late and we accept it. We had a good performance, got an away point and were so close to getting three and we’ll be doing what we can to get that [three points] against Melbourne City.
“We’ve had two tough battles against Melbourne City thus far. We had a very good performance in our last encounter – a 0-0 draw – and we know it will be a difficult game.
“We thought we did a good job against Wanderers and now we have another tough challenge. We’re prepared for it and confident that we can cause them problems with the football that we play. We respect the fact that they’re dangerous and that we need to defend well.
“It’s another great and exciting challenge and one that I know the group is really looking forward to.”
Glory will be targeting a seventh away win of the campaign at AAMI Park and Popovic has no fresh injury concerns to deal with ahead of the clash with a City side that has lost just once on home soil this season.
The hosts, however, will be forced to reshuffle their backline with regular starters Ritchie De Laet and Bart Schenkeveld both ruled out through suspension, while fellow-defender Harrison Delbridge won’t feature either as he continues to battle a hamstring injury.
The visitors have enjoyed their trips to AAMI Park this year, picking up seven points via two wins over Melbourne Victory and a draw with City.
Match Details
Sunday, 3 March 2019
Hyundai A-League 2018/19 Season Round 21
Melbourne City FC v Perth Glory
AAMI Park, Melbourne
Kick-Off: 5:00PM (Local) (2:00PM (WST))
Referee: Alex King
Assistant Referee 1: Daniel Ilievski
Assistant Referee 2: Tony Peart
Fourth Official: Jonathan Barreiro
VAR: Kris Griffiths-Jones
TV Broadcast: Live coverage on FOX SPORTS 505 from 4.30pm (AEDT), Sky Sport Pop-up 2 (New Zealand) and MyFootball Live App, Live Fast and Data Free for Telstra mobile customers
Radio Broadcast: myfootballnation.com (SEN+ and 6PR). ABC News on Radio, Grandstand Digital, Online & via the ABC Listen App – A-League Live.
Join the conversation on Twitter using the hash tag #MCYvPER
To purchase tickets visit www.a-league.com.au/tickets
Melbourne City FC squad: 1.Mark BIRIGHITTI, 3.Scott JAMIESON (c), 7.Rostyn GRIFFITHS, 8.Riley MCGREE, 9.Shayon HARRISON, 10.Dario VIDOSIC, 13.Nathaniel ATKINSON, 15.Kearyn BACCUS, 18.Eugene GALEKOVIC (gk), 19.Lachlan WALES, 21.Ramy NAJJARINE, 22.Curtis GOOD, 25.Iacopo LA ROCCA, 26.Luke BRATTAN, 27.Florin BERENGUER-BOHRER, 29.Jamie MACLAREN, 34.Connor METCALFE, 36.Dylan PIERIAS
**two to be omitted**
Ins: 13.Nathaniel ATKINSON (promoted), 21.Ramy NAJJARINE (promoted), 34.Connor METCALFE (promoted), 36.Dylan PIERIAS (promoted)
Outs: 2.Ritchie DE LAET (suspended – 1 week), 5.Bart SCHENKEVELD (suspended – 1 week)
Unavailable: 4.Harrison DELBRIDGE (hamstring)
Perth Glory squad: 1.Tando VELAPHI (gk), 3.Jason DAVIDSON, 4.Shane LOWRY, 5.Ivan FRANJIC, 6.Dino DJULBIC, 7.Joel CHIANESE, 9.Andy KEOGH, 11.Brendon SANTALAB, 13.Matthew SPIRANOVIC, 17.Diego CASTRO, 19.Chris IKONOMIDIS, 20.Jake BRIMMER, 21.Jacob ITALIANO , 22.Fabio FERREIRA, 23.Scott NEVILLE, 27.JUANDE, 33.Liam REDDY (gk), 88.Neil KILKENNY
**two to be omitted**
Ins: 11.Brendon SANTALAB (promoted), 21.Jacob ITALIANO (promoted)
Outs: Nil
Unavailable: 2.Alex GRANT (thigh – 1 week), 16.Tomislav MRCELA (thigh – 1 week)
#OneGlory
