It was another Player of the Match performance from Marco Tilio, who was a crucial figure in City’s important 1-0 win over Central Coast Mariners at AAMI Park on Saturday afternoon.
Following the match, the attacker spoke about the confidence gained from being away with the Socceroos for two important World Cup qualifiers.
“Obviously it was good to be back involved with the national team,” Tilio told 10 Football. I feel like I played my part in training, and I think the team knows each other’s roles, so it was really good to be back involved with them.”
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“Every time you go in, you take notes from the older boys and the experienced players doing well in their careers and I’ve been able to bring that back to the club, so I’m really happy.”
With all to play for, City secured the three points against a resilient Mariners defence.
“I think coming up against back fives is always going to be difficult,” Tilio reflected. “As a front three, you know, they’re going to sit in and as an attacker, you just want to get on the ball and try to create things.”
“We knew early on if we got the pressure up top right, that we’d have opportunities to attack. We just had to be patient with it, and then obviously we found the goal on a set piece that we’ve been practicing, so we’re really pleased with that.”
Straight off the training pitch, it was a special set piece that saw City break the deadlock.
Andreas Kuen played it short to Tilio, who whipped in a beautiful cross to the back post finding Kai Trewin. The defender then got a foot to it, putting the ball on a platter for Medin Memeti to tap it home into the back of an empty net.
“When the free kick was awarded, I went over to Ale [Lopane] who is on the free kick as well as Andreas, and I said, ‘tell Andreas to do it’,” he reflected.
“They knew what the plan was and pretty much went away and did it, and it came off so really happy.”
Tilio and City will be aiming to make it three wins on the trot when they face Brisbane Roar this Friday 11 April at AAMI Park, kick-off 7:35pm. Click here and get your tickets to the huge doubleheader today.
