The Central Coast Mariners have already shown they can match Guangzhou Evergrande in terms of performance, but will need to do it again on Wednesday to have any chance of reaching the quarter-finals of soccer’s Asian Champions League.
The Mariners troubled the moneyed Chinese champions in last week’s round-of-16 first leg, when the visitors depended on a lucky rebound, a Central Coast mistake and a 76th-minute goal from Brazilian forward Muriqui to eke out a 2-1 win.
Coach Graham Arnold is convinced his players have a chance of getting the away goals they need if they can deliver a similar performance in Wednesday’s second leg at Guangzhou’s Tianhe Stadium.
“I’ve watched the DVD a couple of times and, if we play the way we did in Gosford and we take our chances, then everything is possible,” Arnold said.
“We’re fit and we’ve only got one competition to focus on.
“They had to play us last Wednesday then fly back and play on Saturday night. We’re fit and fresh and we’ll give it our best shot.”
The Australian outfit arrived in China on Sunday but had a setback when they lost most of Monday’s training session to a downpour.
Still, midfielder Michael McGlinchey – picked out by Guangzhou coach Marcello Lippi as the Mariners’ key man – said the squad remained confident.
“We’ve done the video analysis and we’ve seen that we created a lot of chances, so we just have to do something similar and hopefully the ball goes in this time,” McGlinchey said.
“It’s important that we don’t go crazy in the first 20 or 30 minutes. As long as we can keep a clean sheet as long in the game as we can, we know we’ve got the quality from set pieces or from individual players to get a goal.
“We’ve achieved all of our goals and it would be nice to go one stage further.”
Arnold expects Lippi’s side to offer up just as much space for the Mariners as they did in Gosford. It will be up to Australia’s lone representatives in the competition to exploit it judiciously.
“We’re 90 minutes away from reaching the last eight in Asia and that’s the way we’ve got to look at it,” Arnold said.
“But you can’t win a game in the first half – usually you can only lose it. We’ve got to play with our brains, use common sense and do our jobs.
“It’s important we don’t concede early. If we concede in the first half, it will pretty much be game over, as then we’ll have to get three. We need to go out there and make sure we are defensively strong.”
Whatever happens, with a three-month break until the next round, this will be the final match of a gruelling season that has had the Mariners criss-crossing Asia while still managing to pick up their first A-League title.
The grand final win over Western Sydney was undoubtedly the highlight of the Mariners’ campaign but midfielder Nick Montgomery says reaching the last eight in Asia would be huge.
“Wednesday is a massive game and a massive achievement for me as a player and the Mariners,” Montgomery said.
“The AFC Champions League is so big across Asia.
“For me, it’s definitely up there with the biggest games I’ve played in. We’re looking at 40,000 people in a nice stadium against a great team. These are the nights you play football for.”
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