After Adelaide United’s disappointing 3-2 loss against Brisbane Roar on Saturday evening, Reds forward, Sergio Cirio, has said he and his teammates will be doing everything possible to go into the finals in the best possible physical condition and playing form.
For the majority of the match against the Roar, the Reds were behind and even found themselves 3-0 down relatively early in the second half. In comparison to this season’s strong defensive record, this situation was vastly different to much of what Josep Gombau’s players had experienced.
Speaking about the match, Cirio attributed the loss to an accumulation of mistakes, a lot of which a clinical Brisbane were able to make count.
“We made a lot of mistakes (against Brisbane) and they benefited from them,” Cirio said.
“They are a very good team, (but) if we want to be on the top of the table, we have to erase these mistakes.
“Although we lost the game we created a lot of chances and we need to keep that in the work that we are doing to create those chances.
“In football, you never know. Sometimes you can create two or three chances (and you can win the game).
“Last game we created a lot, but we lost. We’ll practice our finishing and our defending because we want to be stronger.
“If we can improve (a little in all aspects) we can do well in the finals.”
And Adelaide United’s march to the finals has reached its most pivotal stage with two games to go against Western Sydney Wanderers (away) and Melbourne City (home) making it a tough run into the knockout phase of the domestic competition.
Yet Cirio and the entire Reds squad are desperate to make amends and finish the campaign in the best possible position on the table, hopefully securing Asian Champions League qualification in the process.
“These last two games are going to be very important for us,” Cirio continued.
“We lost in our last game at home, so we have to move on from it and look forward to the next games.
“We prepare for each game in the same way, so I think next game will be very difficult (against Western Sydney) because they’re the current Asian Champions League champions.
“Even last season when we played against Melbourne (City) and they were playing for nothing, it was very difficult so we’re expecting the same this time.
“(Also, finishing in the top two) is very important because it puts us in a better spot to qualify for the Asian Champions League and we wouldn’t play in the first round (of the finals) with the second round being played at our home.
“I think this is the target for us for the last two games and we’ll prepare for these two weeks to do this.”
Adelaide United will next travel to take on Western Sydney Wanderers on Saturday 18 April 2015 at Pirtek Stadium in Round 26 of the Hyundai A-League 2014/15 Season. Kick-off at 5:00pm (4:30pm ACDT).
