Melbourne Victory head coach Kevin Muscat believes his team can get its Hyundai A-League campaign off to a perfect start on Friday night, if it can replicate its performance from last season’s Elimination Final.
Victory’s 2015/16 Finals Series ended in heartbreaking fashion against Brisbane Roar, its opponent for Friday night’s season opener.
In that knockout final at Suncorp Stadium, Victory dominated for large parts of the match and took the lead late, only for the Roar to advance after scoring two goals at the death.
“The last time we were there we performed very, very well,” Muscat told reporters on Thursday.
“If we perform to the same level, I have no doubt in my mind that we’ll win.
“We’ll go across there and like always, we’ll worry about ourselves.
“Johnny’s (Roar coach John Aloisi) recruited well. Pretty similar to ourselves, they’ve got a certain philosophy they adhere to.
“In relation to their recruitment, they’ll make some adjustments no doubt, based on the players’ strengths that they brought in.”
Victory heads into season 12 of the Hyundai A-League as it has every other – with expectations high.
“It’s been a long time coming, and it’s been a decent build-up. I’m looking forward to it, and no doubt the players are also,” Muscat said.
“We’re very confident. We won’t take a backward step. We want to dominate, we want to get at teams and be exciting.
“Certainly here at home that’s what has become expected from a Melbourne Victory football team by our great member base.
“I’m confident we’ll be challenging, and no doubt like everyone else at this time of year, we want to win everything.”
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