Queensland will use the possibility of a place in the Asian Champions League as motivation for this weekend’s cut-throat Preliminary Final against Adelaide.
Premiers Melbourne has already claimed one of the two Australian berths in the continental club competition, meaning the winner of Saturday night’s clash at Hindmarsh stadium will claim the other.
Coach Frank Farina is aware of the tough task facing him, despite the issues surrounding his opponents after their heavy loss to the Victory on the weekend.
“Irrespective of everything else that’s going on around them, they’re a good football side,” he said.
“We’re just trying to focus on what we’ve got to do which is a big mountain to climb – to go to Adelaide and win – but we have done it before.”
“So we’ll just let them keep going with what’s happening down there and just concentrate on getting ourselves ready for what is really our grand final.”
“This is the grand final because the winner of this game qualifies for Asia irrespective of what happens in the Grand Final as such. So this, for both us and Adelaide, is a massive game.”
The Newcastle Jets pipped the Roar 3-2 after extra time at the same stage last year and Farina agreed with goalkeeper Liam Reddy’s comments that the team was better placed to progress this year as opposed to season three.
“We’ve got a lot of different players scoring goals whereas last year it was sprinkled around three or four,” he said.
“So that’s been the big difference and that’s where we’re better off than we were, say, 12 months ago.”
The Roar coach will give injured winger Tahj Minniecon until Thursday to prove his fitness.
