Eugene Galekovic has said Adelaide United deserve to be in with a chance of claiming the Hyundai A-League Premiership, following their action packed 2-0 win over Melbourne City on Friday night.
The Reds clinched a confident 2-0 win over Melbourne City on Friday night, a well taken free-kick by Isaias followed by a Bruce Djite penalty on the stroke of half time giving United the valuable three points.
The win has taken Adelaide back to the summit of the competition, two points in front of Brisbane Roar. However, John Aloisi’s men are yet to play this weekend, and should they triumph over Melbourne Victory on Saturday night, the Roar will be crowned this season’s Premiers.
But United Captain, Eugene Galekovic, has said he and his teammates deserve to be in with a chance of claiming some silverware after what has been a remarkable season. The Reds were winless in their opening eight matches and sat at the foot of the table before winning their 14th match of the season on Friday night.
“We’ve shown a lot of things over this season, not just playing good football, but being physical when we need to be and when we need to stand up, we’ve done that too,” Galekovic said.
“Leading into the finals, it makes us a difficult side to come up against.
“We’ve played a certain style of football for a few seasons now and we’ve just gotten better and better with it.
“We still don’t know who we’re going to play in the second week of the Finals and at this stage it could be anyone.
“Whichever team we get, we’ll be ready. We have a week off and in the last few weeks we’ve had a few matches that have been like finals that we’ve needed to win to stay in contention at the top of the table, so we know what to do.
“You play the entire season to be Premiers and the Finals Series is to be Champions. We’ve played to get that Premiership since Round 1 and hopefully we’ve done what we’ve needed to with our win (last night).”
United dominated City at AAMI Park, restricting the league’s most prolific squad in front of goal to just a handful of half-chances, nullifying a number of potential attacks with impeccable defending.
Galekovic praised his teammates for this, and said that it was a significant reason as to why the Reds came away with the three points.
“If you look at the way we played and the score line, they’re the most dangerous strike force in the league and other than two free-kicks, I only really made one save,” he explained.
“Defensively, and starting from Bruce (Djite) all the way at the top, we gave them nothing. When we had to press, we pressed, and when we had to defend, we were superb.
“When we played City at Coopers, it was probably the worst game we’ve played while on this streak of ours. But even then, we were very good in defence and Melbourne only had one shot, which they curled into the top corner.
“This time we went over there and we knew what we had to do, so all the credit has to go to the boys.”
Should Adelaide become Premiers, it will be the first time since the 2005/06 season they have done so.
