Gold Coast United coach Miron Bleiberg is itching for an all-Queensland Hyundai A-League final after his team claimed a 2-1 win over the Perth Glory at nib Stadium on Sunday night.
With Brisbane Roar sitting pretty on top of the ladder having sewn up the Premier’s Plate, Gold Coast are now only one point behind third-placed Adelaide United and have secured a home final with Sunday night’s win.
Bleiberg believes an all-Queensland grand final would be great for the competition, saying all local supporters would come out for the spectacle.
“In my opinion if there will be a Queensland final, it will be a proud moment for the A-League because I believe that probably will be at Suncorp Stadium and will be some 40,000 people there,” Bleiberg said.
But he added it’s not set in stone his side will even make it to the final as they still have two more matches in a bid to climb ahead of Adelaide United and the Central Coast Mariners on the ladder.
“If it will happen, it will happen, but at the moment we only enforce players and we still have Adelaide and we still have Mariners to overcome and unfortunately up to a week ago our fate was in our hands, now it’s not anymore in our hand. But again even in fifth or sixth position we can make it,” he added.
United midfielder Michael Thwaite said the victory over Perth Glory was important for them to gain the upper hand going into the finals.
He added the Gold Coast needed the boost ahead of their two last matches of the campaign, against the second-placed Mariners and local rival Brisbane.
Thwaite says the team is determined to get up to second place on the ladder and has the belief to take them as high as they can go.
“I’m really proud of our team, obviously guaranteed a home final now so that’s crucial for our finals’ momentum and it’s all in our hands if we can manage to beat Central Coast and Brisbane, we can even get second spot.”
“That’s what our aim was all year and that’s what we aim to do,” the 27-year-old said.
