Melbourne City head coach Aurelio Vidmar discussed the “exciting” prospect of qualifying for the AFC Champions League Elite and the history associated with it should the Isuzu UTE A-League high-flyers achieve the feat.
City are second with two regular season matches remaining and in the box seat to clinch a continental berth next season.
As New Zealand’s Auckland FC – who are on the cusp of the Premiership – are part of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC), it means they are ineligible to compete in AFC club competition. With that in mind, second place will secure Australia’s sole berth in next season’s ACL Elite.
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As it stands, City are three points clear of rivals Western United ahead of Saturday night’s clash with Adelaide United.
City have twice featured in the AFC Champions League (2022 and 2023-24) but were unable to progress beyond the group stage on either occasion. However, a lot has changed since then, including the competition’s format from a typical group-stage format to a league format.
“It would be absolutely brilliant,” Vidmar told reporters when asked about the potentially qualifying for the Champions League. “The expectations of a club like Melbourne City is to to be performing at that level on a yearly basis. So we put ourselves in a good position to try to attain that.
“It’s a special competition. Always exciting, always exciting games. It’s moved so differently in terms of prize money. If I look back at the Adelaide days, when we made the final getting past the group stage, you had to come top. Now it’s completely different.
“The prize money is completely, completely different as well. It’s exciting, and hopefully we can get the right results in the next two weeks and give ourselves a good chance to finish second.”
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Should City’s Isuzu UTE A-League outfit qualify for the ACL Elite, they would join their Ninja A-League counterparts in featuring in next season’s competition across both men’s and women’s.
Two-time reigning Ninja A-League premiers City are gearing up for next month’s semi-finals in the inaugural AFC Women’s Champions League, while they have already secured their spot in the 2025-26 edition.
It would mean an A-Leagues club would have representatives in both competitions for the first time.
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“I think it would be (an A-Leagues) first,” said Vidmar.
“If I could have take a little opportunity to congratulate Michael (Matricciani), his staff and all the players on a remarkable season to go the whole season unbeaten. It is never easy to do that and having a coach just coming in his first year to achieve that, he’s done a remarkable job. So massive congratulations to all of them.
“And yes, on the men’s side, if we can also finish second, get a Champions League spot and go well in the finals, it’ll be a very good season for the club.”
Meanwhile, young gun Alessandro Lopane detailed his recovery from a serious injury that nearly cut short his career.
It was his first A-Leagues appearance in 328 days.
Lopane has established himself in City’s line-up since then, starting the past three matches.
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“Every day I wake up and I get to touch the pitch again, It’s unreal,” Lopane said.
“It was a bit of an upset having that injury but I feel like pretty much bounced back and done everything on my end to try and get back into the squad. Now that I’m playing again, it’s an unreal feeling.”
Lopane then went into detail regarding the pre-season operation he underwent.
“When I was actually in the hospital bed, the surgeon said it was only going to be a little surgery, just a keyhole to put the cartilage that actually tore off behind the kneecap back on,” he recalled.
“Then an hour before surgery, he actually said the news to me, my mum, and said that will actually have to cut from the top of the knee to the bottom, to open up the knee, and flip the kneecap, put the cartilage back to where it was, and then put the kneecap back on and then stitch it up.
“I was a bit in shock. Then I literally woke up and looked like I had a shark bite on my knee and I was like, fire up. Like, now I can only think of the positives and try and get back to touching that pitch again, because at the end of the day, that’s all I wanted to do.
“Now that I’m here, you know, six months ago, I would not think I would be in this position. Every single day I’m out there with the boys. It’s such a blessed feeling.”
Vidmar labelled Lopane’s pre-surgery surprise a “shock to everyone”.
“MRI shows one thing, but as soon as you you go in and open it up a little bit, and then you got a different situation,” he said.
“We’re really thankful the surgery went well. The graft took was always in an awkward position for him, because as soon as you start cutting corners with rehab, especially injuries like that, you have problems.
“He was able to be really focused on making sure that he gets his his rehab done properly, attention to detail with the work he did in the gym, the work that he did off the pitch with, with the physios and rehab. It was very, very good.
“I feel like he’s got a new lease of life that he doesn’t want to take any more, not that he took any chances, but making every post a winner.
“So he wants to make something out of his career. He’s a great guy. He’s a lovely kid, great family, listens, wants to learn, puts himself in the training sessions, you know, giving 100% so, you know, I couldn’t speak even more highly than for Ali.
“So we’re expecting good things and bigger things next year.”
