Coach confident Blues will recover
Sydney FC boss Graham Arnold insists he remains confident in his side’s ability to win the Asian Champions League despite the opening round loss to Suwon Bluewings that he described as a “wake-up call”.
As his side prepared to face Chinese giants Shanghai Shenhua tonight, Arnold rejected “negative thoughts”, and said his side had already absorbed lessons from the 2-0 loss at home to Suwon.
Defeat in China would leave Sydney scrambling to secure a place in the top two of the group and advance to the knockout stages, and Arnold will take no chances by deploying his strongest side despite the prospect of an A-League derby four days later back in Sydney.
Shanghai face their own pressures after a 1-1 draw away to Kashima Antlers last week, and Arnold (pictured) said his side was brimful of confidence that it could kickstart the Sky Blues’ continental campaign.
“Of course, (last week) was one game and there’s five to go,” he said. “We don’t think negatively. The whole plan is to get into the top two in the group and then move forward, and we expect that will happen.
“When you lose, you learn, and I’ve analysed the game from last week which showed me there was nothing between the teams for 68 minutes. In the big moments we probably let ourselves down.”
Rested by a weekend off between ACL games, Arnold said Sunday’s third derby of the ALeague season wouldn’t enter his thoughts until the final whistle against Shanghai.
Sydney don’t return to Australia until Friday morning, but will have 48 hours to recover from the flight before taking on Western Sydney at Allianz Stadium in the last derby there before it is rebuilt.
“We’ll worry about the derby come midnight Wednesday night Shanghai time, when this game is over,” he said.
Shanghai v Sydney FC, tonight, 10pm (AEST)