Win and scoreboard watch, City face nervy final ACL matchday

With every side in their Asian Champions League group simultaneously still able to advance or be eliminated on the final matchday, the various scenarios that could result from Melbourne City’s clash with Zhejiang on Tuesday evening, combined with results elsewhere, are almost innumerable. For coach Aurelio Vidmar, though, the equation is much more straightforward. Just win. 

City will head to Princes Park on Tuesday evening for their meeting with Zhejiang, whose Chinese Super League season wrapped up last month with a third-place finish, sitting in second place in Group H; level on points with leaders Ventforet Kofu but one goal adrift of the Japanese side based on goals scored. 

Yoshiyuki Shinoda’s side is in Thailand to face off with Buriram United in their final game of the group stages this evening – that fixture’s kickoff time was brought forward and City’s pushed back to 8.30 pm local to ensure they took place at the same time – with coach Arthur Papas’ hosts also needing a win to keep alive their faint hopes of progression to the next stages. 

Bottom of the group thanks to a goal difference of negative four, meanwhile, Zhejiang’s dreams of progression, even if mathematically possible, are in the realm of fanciful, a task made harder by suspensions to three of its players – Yao Junsheng, Léo Souza, and Yu Dong – following a brawl with Buriram on matchday five. Unfortunately for that trio, the AFC’s suspension was handed down after the team had flown to Melbourne; meaning they’ll be helpless observers in the stands on Tuesday. 

For City, a win at the former home of Carlton SC, accompanied by a Kofu loss or draw, would see them top the group. Should Kofu also win, they would need to win by two goals more than the Japanese side to leapfrog them. A draw combined with a Buriram win also sees Vidmar’s side top the group, as would City and Kofu both drawing but the former scoring two goals more than the latter.

A draw combined with a Kofu win or both sides triumphing and City failing to score two goals more than Kofu, however, confines the A-League Men premiers to second-place in the group and needing results to go their way in other groups. A loss, quite simply, eliminates them. 

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“Every game for me is big, we want to win every game we play,” Vidmar said. “Yeah, in the context of things, it’s important that we try to qualify and get into the round of 16. That’ll be a really special moment for this group. All we can do is go out there and perform. 

“If we perform to our best, then we should get what we deserve. We don’t know what the others are going to do. We just got to win first.

“[The playing group is] certainly aware of what a win will do. So I don’t have to talk about anything else except performing to a level that’s going to give you the best chance to win. And then the rest will take care of itself. 

“It’s a little bit different because we’re here at Princes Park — we’re not we’re home but not really home. So we’ll get a nice little taste of the pitch [on MD-1] to give us a bit of a feel. But again, our focus is what we need to do if we do that properly and to an acceptable level, then we have a better chance of winning.”

Should City end the evening in second place in their group, they may have to wait until tomorrow evening to know if they’ve done enough to progress to the knockout stages. 

Only the three best second-placed finishers of the five East zone groups will advance to the round of 16, with City and their eight points currently held out of those slots by a trio of Korean sides that will enter the final match-day on nine points. 

With no head-to-head comparison possible, goal difference will be the first tiebreaker used in the event of equal points finishes, followed by goals scored, disciplinary points, and, finally, association ranking. 

Kicking off half an hour after City’s game, Ulsan will host Kawasaki in the final game of Group I play, with the Japanese side already through as the group winners thanks to five wins from five.

Tomorrow evening, Jeonbuk will host Bangkok United, who have also already qualified for the knockout stages, in Group F play, while Incheon will travel to face Philippine side Kaya FC, who are bottom of Group G after five straight defeats and three goals scored against 18 conceded. 

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Elsewhere, Yokohama F Marinos, who are third in Group G but who also have nine points, will host top-of-the-group Shandong Taishan in Kevin Muscat’s final game in charge. 

“Our focus is winning, we can’t control what we can’t,” said Vidmar. “I’m sure we’ll have, Pej [Pedj Radinovic, City’s football operations general manager] will certainly be on the phone for sure and watching. 

“So that shouldn’t be our focus, our focus is solely on doing our job. And if we do our job properly, we get the win.”

Vidmar said that Mat Leckie, who scored in what was his return to the starting lineup following an LCL injury in City’s 2-0 win over Perth on Friday, had pulled up well from that contest and that he had no new injury concerns heading into Tuesday evening. 

Winners of two-straight games heading into Tuesday night, City have slowly begun to claw their way up the table after a slow start to the season – Rado Vidošić’s ouster after round two not leading to any kind of immediate turnaround – and currently sit in seventh on the A-League Men table, five points back of league-leaders Macarthur. 

“I have to give a lot of credit to all the staff because they’ve done a hell of a lot of work,” said the coach. “And also to the players because we haven’t been able to train, so it’s very difficult to work on things. 

“We’ve been doing a lot of video and the small sessions that we have, minus two or minus one [sessions], the players have responded well. Sure, we still have to get a lot better in every aspect of our game. 

“But we are building momentum. And I think wins also help that. It helps with confidence, it helps with belief. And we have so much more upside, so much more upside.”

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