Melbourne City and Sydney FC are no strangers when it comes to Westfield FFA Cup football, and this Quarter Final clash is shaping up to be another epic.
The clash
City will be heading to Sydney hungry for a result, with Warren Joyce’s side looking to return to a competitive environment this pre-season after losses to Newcastle and Adelaide in modified matches at CFA Melbourne.
Sydney FC also went down to the Jets last week in their final preparations for the Quarter Final with Graham Arnold experimenting with his full squad despite the result.
City’s major exclusion for the clash will be star striker Bruno Fornaroli. The Uruguayan fractured his ankle in the Club’s Round of 16 win against Hakoah Sydney City East, and is expected to miss a large chunk of the early stages of the season but the addition of Tim Cahill to the side will boost City’s chances.
The reigning A-league Champions look set to be a contender once again this season, bolstering their playing list with the signings of Luke Wilkshire and Adrian Mierzejewski, and they will be doing everything they can for FFA Cup redemption.
Last time
This will be the third time these two teams have faced off against one another in FFA Cup history. In what was a memorable moment for City, the most recent cup encounter was in last year’s Final at AAMI Park. City secured its first piece of senior men’s silverware, thanks to a trademark Tim Cahill header.
In more recent times, Sydney FC has had the better City in the A-League, with the reigning Champions running out convincing 3-0 winners the last time these two met in the home and away season.
What was said
Luke Brattan
“This is the real stuff. We want to be the biggest club in Asia, and for that to happen we have to win trophies. Winning the FFA Cup last year was a great for the club, but we want to push that throughout the rest of our season as well. Every game and trophy up for grabs, we want to win it”
Sydney FC Head Coach Graham Arnold
“We’re extremely excited for the game”
“We’ve got 48 hours to prepare for the game, we’ll go in to the game expecting to win as normal but at the same time it’s an important pre-season match in a competition that we haven’t won before as a club and we want that trophy as well,”
Where and when
City will travel to the scene of their Round of 16 clash at Leichardt Oval on Wednesday night, kick off at 7:30pm. The match will be the feature game on Fox Sports 505 so there’s no online subscription needed to watch it.
