Melbourne Victory will aim to please an expected crowd of 95,000 at the MCG for Wednesday’s clash with Liverpool.
The team has just come off a 1-0 friendly win against Victorian Premier League side Port Melbourne on Tuesday night and will be looking to fill gaps in the squad from the Socceroos call.
Archie Thompson, Mark Milligan, Mitch Nichols, Connor Pain and goalkeeper Nathan Coe have all been called up to Korea for Socceroos duty and won’t be part of coach Ange Postecoglou’s arsenal.
Liverpool, on the other hand, is expected to field English megastar Steven Gerrard and Australian goalkeeper Brad Jones.
The only major addition Victory will have for the Reds game will be Billy Celeski, who returns from A-League All Stars duty on Sunday.
Player Leigh Broxham says despite the lack of players, Victory won’t be going into the game with a weak mentality.
“With such good coverage you want to give a good name to the Australian game and obviously Melbourne Victory as well,” he said.
“So we do want to stick to what we want to do and not just park the bus to grind out a 0-0 result in front of 95,000 people, that’s probably not an ideal result.
“Ange (Postecoglou), he does put pressure on the young boys to perform week in, week out.
“Whether you’re 18 or 28 – although he understands the inconsistency at times of younger players – he expects the same things from them.
Liverpool has named a full strength squad featuring the likes of Steven Gerrard, Luis Suarez and Kolo Toure.
Melbourne Victory take on Liverpool FC on July 24 at Melbourne’s MCG. Kick-off is 8.00 pm.
