Heading into Wednesday night’s AFC Champions League 2 clash, Ufuk Talay believes his side have nothing to lose with the squad that he has available.
They do not have an easy task ahead of them, taking on the Japanese J-League leaders Sanfrecce Hiroshima in Japan, however the Head Coach believes if they stick to their principles they can get the job done.
“Playing in Asia is never easy. The journeys that you have to do to play some matches are long but for us the most important thing is that we focus on what we need to do and how we need to play.
“We’re not focused on individuals or the opponent, more focused on what we need to do to get the desired outcome,” he said.
“But when you’re young, everything is achievable, especially with the players we have.”
Alex Popovic made his Isuzu UTE A-League debut for his new club on Saturday in the Sydney Derby and echoed the sentiments of his Head Coach by wanting to make an impression in the competition.
“We want to impress, we want to show who Sydney FC are.
“We want to stamp some authority in the Champions League, especially in front of more than 10,000 Japanese supporters.
“It’s going to be exciting,” he said.
The Sky Blues are coming off the back of a thrilling Sydney Derby win on Saturday night at CommBank Stadium and Ufuk Talay assured that the team are looking fresh and did all the right things heading into this one.
“We are very excited to be here in Hiroshima and we’re excited about playing tomorrow’s occasion against a team that’s doing very well in their domestic competition.
“We made a good start to our league campaign and we’re looking forward to tomorrow’s game and hopefully we can get a similar outcome,” Talay added.
“We’ve done very well in the time that we have been here and the boys have had a good recovery day in between the travel.
“We had a good session on the pitch before and it’s very important that we implement our beliefs into the game and hopefully get the desired outcome,” he concluded.
Catch all the action from 9pm on 10Play in Australia and on AFC YouTube around the rest of the world.
Match Details
Sanfrecce Hiroshima v Sydney FC
AFC Champions League 2 Matchday 3
Wednesday 23 October 2024
Hiroshima Soccer Stadium, Hiroshima, Japan
Kick Off: 9:00pm AEDT (7:00pm Local)
Broadcast Live: 10Play
