Melbourne Victory will need to conquer a short turnaround and a resurgent Perth Glory to secure three points in Saturday night’s Round 17 clash at nib Stadium.
Perth sits in seventh position on the Hyundai A-League ladder, but will be brimming with confidence after Sunday’s 6-1 win over Newcastle.
Victory defeated Sydney FC at Etihad Stadium on Australia Day – its second straight win – leaving just three days to recover before their Round 17 clash.
“Everyone has recovered really well. Everyone is available,” said Victory coach Kevin Muscat on Friday.
“Playing at Etihad, normally the bodies are a little bit sore after playing there, but as you can imagine, the spirit has been great in the last few days.”
Muscat said his playing group will pay respect to Perth, a team which Victory has recorded a 1-0 loss and 1-1 draw against so far this Hyundai A-League season.
“You’ve got to give credit to Perth. They’ve got some depth now – if you look at last week (Andy) Keogh was on the bench, they’ve got some players who are playing well,” he said.
“Perth are a good team and they’re not going to make it easy for anyone, let alone us coming across there.
“In transition they’ve got some pace now. They’ve got a genuine goalscorer (in Keogh) who didn’t even play last week and they scored six goals. They’ve got some craft in midfield as well.
“Look, it’s set up to be a decent game of football. We’ll go across there in a game that can really set both sides up in terms of going on a bit of a run.
“We’re going to have to be at our best. It’s going to be one hell of a contest.”