Aurelio Vidmar says his Melbourne City side is relishing the opportunity “to have a crack” at Saturday night’s Melbourne Derby.
City will be looking to make it two wins from two to open the 2024/25 A-Leagues season when they host their cross-town rivals under lights at AAMI Park.
Be there as we host Melbourne Victory in our home opener.
Read the Head Coach’s pre-match thought below…
MELBOURNE DERBY READY
“Hopefully it’s not too much of a chess game, that would be pretty boring, but in saying that, it’s a derby for God’s sake so everyone will be itching to get out there and really have a crack.”
FAST START
“We’ve had a great pre-season, we’ve had a great start to the season last week against Newcastle, that’s never an easy game to get a result. Everyone’s healthy and we’re looking forward to what we always expect is going to be a big game.”
MARCO MAGIC
“Tils hasn’t played for a little while and he’s in really, really good shape. He’s happy and confident, and it was really pleasing for him also to score the goal last week. I think Tils will just get better, as much as it was such a long pre-season four months, it’s never the same as the season kicking off and having really competitive matches.
“In my opinion he’s probably the best dribbler, one on one, in the competition. When he starts running at you, it can be quite frightening as a defender. He’s really worked hard in pre-season, at time I felt sorry for him because when he wanted a little break we just kept pushing him, and he’s just worked his way to a really good level of fitness.”
LIFE’S A BEACH
“He [Beach] had a fantastic debut last week, made some nice saves at crucial moments, and there’s no need to make any drastic changes there. He’s a fine young goalkeeper, as is James Nieuwenhuizen, and obviously we have Jamie Young there as well who has really been very supportive of those two young boys. He did very, very well last week so he’ll continue and hopefully he can have a really consistent year.
“[It’s] different pressures obviously because it’s a derby, but he’s played more games for the U23 Olympic team than he has for us so he’s got that little bit of edge of experience anyway.”
