Victory stars set to play A-League derby
Oct 11, 2017 - 3:04 AM Ace Victory striker Besart Berisha is expecting the international contingent, including Socceroos hero Tim Cahill, to back up for Melbourne's A-League cross-town derby on Saturday night.Victory opened their season with a pulsating 1-0 loss to Sydney FC but were without Socceroos James Troisi and Mark Milligan and Kiwi representative Kosta Barbarouses, who were away on international duty.
Cahill, who scored twice in Australia's World Cup qualifying win over Syria in Sydney on Tuesday night, missed City's round one 2-0 defeat of Brisbane.
Berisha said Victory were excited to have their star trio back.
"We are talking about some fantastic players who are missed here, for sure," said the Kosovo international.
"They have great ability and are great players and we need them and we're happy to welcome them back."
While the Socceroos match stretched into 120 minutes due to extra time, Berisha, who is the A-League's most prolific goal-scorer, said the derby was a match everyone wanted to play.
"We'll have to see how they pull up but everyone wants to play this special game," he said.
"Derbies are special to me, special to supporters and clubs."
As well as bragging rights over Melbourne City, Berisha said it was important Victory got into the winner's circle.
"We want to get the points because we lost the first game so this is for us, it's really important for us to bounce back strongly," the 32-year-old said.
Berisha said his team performed strongly against Sydney in the grand final rematch but were only brought undone by some "bad luck" with a bizarre own goal in the second half by young defender Thomas Deng.
He felt confident they could get the win on Saturday night at Etihad Stadium.
"We have a great team - we were very unlucky last Saturday but our performance was good," Berisha said.
"Our commitment to the game, everything we asked from the boys we did, we were just a bit unlucky."
Source: AAP
No one has shouted yet.
Be the first!
Be the first!
Related News
- Confident Victory shoot up A-League Dec 29
- Berisha gets Victory home over Jets Dec 29
- Confident Muscat talking up Victory Dec 27
- Berisha hoping for citizenship in 2018 Dec 26
- Muscat has good vibes back at Victory Dec 23
- Milligan gives Victory A-L derby delight Dec 23
- Milligan cleared for Melb A-League derby Dec 21
- Sanchez eager for A-League derby duel Dec 20
- Berisha signs new A-League deal at Victory Dec 20
- Victory pair face tests for A-League derby Dec 20
- Muscat channels pressure into performance Dec 15
- Effort, not change needed in AL: Victory Dec 14