ACL MD2 - Group H: Sydney FC v Guangzhou Evergrande preview

Published on: 01 March 2016

Sydney: Coach Graham Arnold has confirmed Australia’s Sydney FC will be without captain Alex Brosque for Wednesday’s meeting with defending champions Guangzhou Evergrande from China in the AFC Champions League.

Talisman Brosque (pictured) re-injured his hamstring in Sydney’s 1-1 draw with Melbourne Victory in the A-League on Saturday.

And with a question mark hanging over Brosque’s availably for the remainder of the season, the forward will certainly not feature at Sydney Football Stadium as Arnold’s side look to get their Group H campaign underway following last week’s 2-0 defeat in Japan by Urawa Red Diamonds.

“Alex Brosque is not looking too good; we’re getting a second opinion on him now. By the weekend we’d know how long he’s going to be out for, but it’s not looking great,” said Arnold.

“It’s a big challenge for us, but we’re at home and the boys are extremely excited about the game.

“We’re extremely excited about the game, playing against the current Asian Champions, probably the richest club in Asia.”

Guangzhou, who began the defence of their title with a goalless draw at home to Korea Republic’s Pohang Steelers last week, boast a number of China internationals who were beaten by Australia in the quarter-finals of the AFC Asian Cup at the start of 2015.

“We took a lot out of the game, of how Pohang played and really nullified their star players,” added Arnold.

“They have three very good foreigners, but the rest are their Chinese players and we’ve shown at national team level that we're very good against the Chinese national team. We’ve got to go out with that mentality. We are ready for them.”

Guangzhou coach Luiz Felipe Scolari blamed a lack of match fitness for last week’s draw at home to Pohang, but the Brazilian did see the Chinese Super League champions beat FA Cup winners Jiangsu FC 2-0 in Saturday’s season-opening Super Cup at the weekend thanks to two goals from 2015 AFC Champions League MVP and top scorer Ricardo Goulart.

“In the Champions League there is no easy match to play,” said Scolari.

“We know for the group stage, it’s tough to get through to the next round, only two teams can progress, so we are well motivated and trying our best to get a result.”

Photo: Lagardère Sports 

Source: the-afc.com

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