- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
If their recent strong form is anything to go by, the Central Coast Mariners will fancy their chances of defeating Beijing Guan away from home in the Asian Champions League tonight. Join us for live scores and commentary from 10.30pm AEDT.
The Mariners could hardly buy a win over the last couple of months but last week’s upset victory over Sanfrecce Hiroshima has allowed the Central Coast to re-ignite their A-League and ACL aspirations.
The fact the Mariners came from behind to defeat Hiroshima shows the strong character of a Mariners outfit that will be difficult to topple tonight.
Mile Sterjovski was superb upfront for the Mariners against Hiroshima and will be keen to continue his good form in the ACL.
The most impressive aspect of the Mariners play against Hiroshima was their ability to severely limit the attacking opportunities that the J. League champions were able to create.
Despite some tight moments near the end of the second half, the Central Coast seemed to always have numbers behind the ball, thus limiting Hiroshima’s ability to play through the defence.
Given they are away from home, the Mariners may once again opt to play on the counter-attack against Beijing, as such a tactic worked wonders against Hiroshima.
The Mariners’ opening goal against Hiroshima was a direct result of a counter attack that eventually saw Sterjovski find the back of the net.
Beijing however don’t possess the quality of Hiroshima so it will be interesting to see if the Central Coast decide to try and dominate possession.
A win tonight for the Mariners will go a long way to helping them progress past the group stages of the ACL – a great achievement given the fact they have lost a lot of quality players since winning the A-League grand final last season.
With winning momentum back on their side, the Mariners have what it takes to secure another vital win.
Mariners to win 2-1.