John Aloisi has been on the receiving end of some dramatic comebacks and it has the Western United coach believing his charges can turn the tables on Melbourne Victory in the second leg of their A-League Men semi-final.
United trail Victory 1-0 ahead of Saturday night’s second stanza at AAMI Park and face an uphill task to progress to a club-first grand final.
Aloisi was at the helm of the Brisbane Roar team that lost one of the greatest ALM games of all-time to now-Victory mentor Tony Popovic’s Western Sydney Wanderers in 2016, defeated 5-4 after leading 3-0.
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He expected Victory to come out hard and attempt to kill the tie early, rather than sitting back and defending.
“I don’t think it will be cagey. I expect Victory to come really hard at us.
“I expect Victory to try and win the game in the first 20 (minutes) and we’ll go hard at Victory, don’t worry about that.
“If we’re 1-0 down after 20 minutes, the game’s not over.
“That game against the Wanderers, they were 3-0 down and then they got back to 4-3. You saw this morning Everton were 2-0 down and they came back and won 3-2 (against Crystal Palace).
“Football is a great game. Football’s got many twists and turns and being involved in a few, I’m ready for this one.”
If Victory finish the job, they will be just one game away from completing the ultimate turnaround from wooden spooners to champions.
But coach Tony Popovic wasn’t getting ahead of himself.
“We know we’ve had a successful year. That’s why we’re at this point. We’ve won the Cup. We’re on a fantastic run. Our sole focus is on this game,” he said.
“If that’s something we can think about after the match, for a day or so, that’d be great and then it’d be wonderful to be preparing for a final.
“But no one gives you a final. You have to earn it to get there.
“Western United deserves to be at this point, like we do, they’re fighting hard to make the final as we are and we expect another big fight on Saturday.
“We’re confident in our ability, we’re confident that through the different moments throughout the game that we can come out on top.”
