Muscat turns heat up on ACL opponents

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MELBOURNE Victory coach Kevin Muscat says the eyes of the football world will be on Guangzhou Evergrande on Tuesday, expecting the defending Asian Champions League champions to advance past the group stage of this year's competition.

But with things delicately poised in Group G with two games to play, Muscat is confident his unfancied team can shake up the established order at Etihad Stadium.

Victory trails Guangzhou and Jeonbuk by three points, meaning a loss will likely end its ACL campaign.

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But Guangzhou left Italian international Alessandro Diamanti and Chinese superstar Gao Lin out of its travelling party, whereas Victory has almost a full squad to choose from with Kosta Barbarouses (ankle) and Pablo Contreras (hamstring) expected to be available.

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Only Tom Rogic (groin) has been ruled out.

"If Melbourne Victory doesn't qualify for the knockout stage then I dare say that wouldn't make too many headlines," Muscat said.

"But if Guangzhou don't get out of this group stage then there'll be huge headlines, so I've got no problem saying the pressure is on them tomorrow night.

"We'll put pressure on ourselves internally to go out and win the game because we want to qualify, but there'll be a lot more pressure from the outside - not only internally - on their camp."

Muscat declared his side's first half in China on February 26 - in which it went up 2-0 against Guangzhou before conceding four second half goals - as one of the most impressive performances of any of the 32 teams in the Champions League this year.

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And buoyed by that performance, as well as the gradual improvements made by his team since, Muscat said he is aiming to take all three points ahead of next Tuesday's final group game against Jeonbuk in Korea.

"Of course we're confident," he said.

"I think as well, we're losing a little bit of perspective here. They're a very, very good team. They're in this competition to go back-to-back, there's no two ways about it.

"The way they've spent, they've been very aggressive in improving their squad, they've got a better squad than they did last year when they won the tournament.

"We went across there (in game one) and for 45 minutes played outstanding football. The second half obviously wasn't great from our perspective, but we've learned a lot and we've improved on that.

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"Without doubt we've got no fear going in to the game."

Muscat said he didn't care that Diamanti or Lin haven't travelled, saying: "I've got my own issues selecting a team for tomorrow night".

Victory's front four of Gui Finkler, James Troisi, Archie Thompson and Barbarouses produced a dominant display in the 4-1 win over Wellington on Saturday.

Finkler is ineligible for the Champions League, but Muscat said there is no reason why a similarly fluid performance can't be produced against Guangzhou.

Finkler's likely replacement is Jesse Makarounas.

Italian coach Marcello Lippi is looking to coach Guangzhou to back-to-back ACL wins. Source: AFP

"We can sit here and admire all of the attacking third moves and the combinations, but for me the most pleasing thing (against Wellington) was that our structure was very good and that allowed us to go out and attack, maintain possession and (launch) wave after wave of attack.

"It's great for those boys in the final third, but there's a hell of a lot of work being done behind them by their teammates that they do appreciate without doubt.

"From my perspective, if I'm doing my job right, the person that comes in and replaced Gui ... should understand what's required of them. I have no doubt that that's the case as it has been in the four games in this competition prior to this."

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