Jeonbuk Motors vs Melbourne Victory: Asian Champions League live scores, blog

Melbourne Victory play another sudden death match tonight in their decisive final Group G match against Korea’s Jeonbuk Motors. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage from 9:00pm (AEST).

Jeonbuk have arguably been Victory’s toughest opponent so far, with the slick Korean outfit proving a hand-full at Etihad Stadium in the beginning of March.

In their first encounter, Victory got an early lead through Nick Ansell, but were on the back foot for 60 minutes of the game with Jeonbuk pushing high in defence and keeping the ball expertly when in attack.

The game ended 2-2, but Victory were extremely lucky that Jeonbuk were misfiring away from home. They will, perhaps, be more accurate in front of a strong home crowd.

Melbourne Victory, however, will go into this match with their confidence soaring following an Asian Champions League victory over champions Guangzhou Evergrande preceding their elimination final win against Sydney FC.

Context
A win tonight for either team will grant them a place in the knock-out stage. All four teams in Group G are on 7 points after 5 games played. This alone speaks volumes for Victory’s performance in Asia this season; keeping pace with the heavyweights of Asia in what was labelled the ACL’s ‘group of death’.

Evergrande and Marinos play their final match in China, and the winner of both games will progress. The task is simple for Victory; win and go through, lose and get knocked out.

Game Breaker
Melbourne Victory lose several key players to injury and fatigue, which means they will again have to rely on their youngsters to get the job done. But these same youngsters succeeded against Evergrande, so let’s not ride them off just yet.

Skipper Mark Milligan is suspended for this match, and Gui Finkler is ineligible to play in the Champions League. Pablo Contreras, Tom Rogic, and James Troisi were also left at home when the team travelled to Korea on Sunday.

That’s some experience that Melbourne will desperately miss, but it allows youngsters like Jimmy Jeggo, Rashid Mahazi, Nick Ansell, Scott Galloway, Andrew Nabbout and Jesse Makarounes the chance to start in Korea.

Whatever the case, an unfamiliar starting eleven will begin the match for Melbourne, and will need to gel quickly if they are to have any chance of doing what no other Victory squad has done before – win away from home in Asia.

Jeonbuk Motors will include Australia’s Alex Wilkinson, as well as Jeonbuk skipper Lee Dong Gook who scored a brace against the Victory in the last encounter.

The Brazilian winger Leonardo was also dangerous and will cause some grief on the left wing. Other players worth noting are South Korean internationals Park Won-Jae (fullback), Seung-Yeoul (winger) and Kyo-Ro (midfielder).

The Koreans simply have to create an abundance of chances from the majority of possession – which they have shown they can do – and convert their chances at home to beat Melbourne.

The task is much more daunting for Victory than Jeonbuk.

Prediction
Despite some good results recently, Melbourne will be quite fragile at the back, and Jeonbuk were too sturdy in their first encounter to predict anything other than a Korean victory at home.

2-0 to Jeonbuk Motors.