While all the excitement might surround Sunday’s Hyundai A-League Grand Final, tomorrow night’s AFC Champions League fixture against Ulsan Hyundai at Suncorp Stadium marks Brisbane Roar’s best chance at claiming their maiden win in the competition.
While all the excitement might surround Sunday-s Hyundai A-League Grand Final, tomorrow night-s AFC Champions League fixture against Ulsan Hyundai at Suncorp Stadium marks Brisbane Roar-s best chance at claiming their maiden win in the competition.
The weekend off from playing duties, just two weeks since their last meeting against the South Korean club and some much needed momentum – having not lost in their past seven outings – has made for a confident Brisbane outfit, who appear unfazed at the prospect of two such crucial games in quick succession.
The Roar dominated the April 4 match between the two teams but failed to find the decisive second goal in the 1-1 draw after playing almost the whole second half with just ten men following Matthew Jurman-s red card in the 46th minute.
“We-ve certainly shown our intent to win every game we play and Ulsan are a good side,” Head Coach Ange Postecoglou said.
“They-ve started the K-League really well, they-re right up there.
“All the teams in our group have started their seasons really well and we-re chugging along alright ourselves so it-s a pretty even group.
“We-re expecting another good quality game, they-ll come at us but we-re at home and we still expect to be able to peg them back and hopefully dominate the game.”
Jurman will serve a one-match suspension for his match day three send-off but the Brisbane backline will be boosted by the return of Mohamed Adnan – the Bahraini defender sat out of the last AFC Champions League game after collecting two yellow cards in the opening two matches.
Also confirmed to play against the K-League club is prolific striker Besart Berisha.
The former Arminia Bielefeld man has scored 19 times in the domestic campaign this season but is yet to break his duck in the Asian competition.
“He had a run on his own yesterday and trained with the boys this morning,” Postecoglou said.
“We would have preferred him to train all week but he-s obviously been under the weather.
“He-s fine, he-ll start and I-m sure he-ll do well.”
Brisbane Roar face Ulsan Hyundai tomorrow night at Brisbane Stadium. Kick-off is at 7.30pm with tickets available at the Ticketek website or at the gate.
