They may be bottom of their Asian Champions League group without a victory, but Sydney FC coach Steve Corica feels his team can still progress to the knockouts with a win against Ulsan Hyundai in Korea on Tuesday night.
While the Sky Blues have performed impressively, particularly in both matches against China‘s Shanghai SIPG, they only have three draws to show from their four matches to date and are currently two points behind the second-placed Chinese side.
Corica believes a win can kickstart Sydney’s mission to get through to the round-of-16 – with the thought that a further three points in the final group match at home against Kawasaki would give them a total of nine points.
“We believe if we get three points in the game on Tuesday night we have a very good chance of going through to the next round,” Corica said during his pre-match press conference in Ulsan.
“We’ve come here with a very strong squad – looking to pick up three points.
“We understand [Ulsan] only need a point to go through to the next round but the group is very close below.
“We know we have to play well to win the game. We’ve prepared for that. There is no more pressure than every game.”
The Sydney FC coach acknowledged the talented foreigners in the Ulsan squad – but was adamant his team was travelling Korea to win and keep their ACL hopes alive.
However, Corica did admit ruing previous results in the competition, where the Sky Blues should have picked up three points.
“We’ve played them once before in Australia. I thought we played very well in that game – unfortunately it was only a draw. We were very pleased with how we played,” he said.
“They have very good players. The foreign players are very good – Junior [Negao] and [Mix] Diskerud.
“We didn’t come here for a draw – we’ve come here to win.
“I think we have shown in the other games we have played in our group that we have played very well and maybe deserved a few more points than what we have got.”
With the blockbuster A-League semi-final against rivals Melbourne Victory also looming on Sunday, Corica has opted to rest injury-prone Dutch marquee Siem de Jong and veteran centre-half Alex Wilkinson, while Alex Brosque and Rhyan Grant have also remained in Sydney with fitness issues.
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