Mustafa Amini believes his time at Central Coast Mariners isn’t quite over yet and that he and his teammates will overcome Nagoya Grampus.
Mustafa Amini is positive his time at Central Coast Mariners will end on a high, and that they can knock off Josh Kennedy-s Nagoya Grampus side and advance to a possible round of 16 clash with Adelaide United in the next stage of AFC Champions League action.
To do that, the Mariners will have to win their first ever match against a Japanese side, having zero wins from three encounters thus far.
So why does Amini think the Mariners can buck the trend?
The short answer is fresh legs and a free spirit.
Without the shackles of an A-League finals campaign or the hulking weight of expectation on their back, the Mariners showed what they were capable of when flogging Tianjin Teda 5-1 in their last outing and if Amini is right… there could be more to come in what he is calling one of the biggest matches in the club-s history.
“It-s a massive match, probably one of the biggest matches i n the history of the club,” Amini said.
“To get into the round of 16 of the ACL is pretty big, we have played them before and we drew against them at home, so hopefully we can go there and get a win.
“We-re fresh going into the match and when we won 5-1 we were fresh. Before that we were pretty stuffed with the finals series and ACL.”
While freshness in the legs may have made the difference so too did an attacking mentality, with the Mariners going for the jugular and with a win necessary in Japan, there is every chance they won-t die wondering.
“Before the Tianjin game Arnie (Graham Arnold) said we have got to go for the win, we still had our defensive structure, but it was more attacking and he just said go for it and use combinations and get goals, everything worked out that way, we got five and could have had another five,” Amini said.
“We-re usually known as more of a defensive team who people hate playing against, but we have showed we can play good attacking football when we want to go out then and push for a win we can push forward and get the win.
“This game is massive for Central Coast, we had never won an ACL game before Tianjin and to win 5-1 and have a chance to go to the next round for a win is huge.
“And who knows round of 16 we could have Adelaide in Adelaide and could literally be in the top eight, but I guess we have got to get the three points here first.”
