Central Coast will be chasing an early goal to put the Brisbane Roar under pressure when the teams face off in the second leg of the Hyundai A-League major semi-final at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night.
The Roar head into the match with a huge adavantage after ousting the Mariners 2-0 in the first leg at Gosford.
It would take a monumental turnaround for the Mariners to be first into the Grand Final.
But veteran defender Patrick Zwaanswijk is adamant the Mariners are not out of the contest, insisting an early goal would put the Roar under enormous pressure in front of their own supporters.
During his 12 years in The Netherlands, Zwaasnwijk played several two-legged matches and believes the Roar are not out of reach despite their comprehensive performance at Bluetongue Stadium and their amazing 26-game unbeaten run.
“We don’t have anything to lose,” the big central defender said.
“If we score an early goal they might get nervous and it’s a different ball game.”
“It’ll be difficult, but not impossible for us if we play the way I know we can.”
To have any hope of being first into next month’s grand final the Mariners need to at least beat the Roar 2-0 to force the match into extra time.
“We can beat them,” he said.
“We’re still very hopeful despite what happened on Saturday.”
“After last week’s game I told everyone to stay relaxed, we just weren’t ready to beat them.”
“That last five percent makes the difference, if we can find that and take our chances who knows what could happen on Saturday night.”
“They’re a good side but we’ve got to be confident we’ve got the game plan to do it.”
The big difference between the teams last week was the cutting edge up front with the clinical Roar putting away their chances, while the Mariners squandered several great openings, hitting the post three times.
