Guangzhou Evergrande boss Marcello Lippi is confident his side can deal without the likes of Gao Lin and Alessandro Diamanti, as his side looks to secure a safe passage through to the Round of 16 in the AFC Champions League.
Standing in Guangzhou’s way tonight is Melbourne Victory, who harbour their own ambitions of getting out of the group.
Lippi believes that even without two of his stars, his side are ready to take maximum points away from Melbourne.
“It’s very simple, Alessandro Diamanti got injured last match and Gao Lin is out of this match because of all the yellow cards so he’s not available for this match,” Lippi said.
“Of course we didn’t expect this kind of injury but we’ll try our best in order to perform well tomorrow. For sure we’re going to make some adjustments but we’re ready to play the match.
“The match is going to be really tough but we’re going to try our best to achieve three points. We always play to win.”
Lippi’s thoughts were echoed by his captain Zheng Zhi, who feels the rest of the squad are covering for the missing Diamanti.
“From my point of view I think tomorrow the match is not going to be a problem because I already recovered well from the injury in the last match and for my teammates like Diamanti who didn’t come here for this match, the other players are doing well [to cover his absence].”
The Italian manager has studied his opponents closely, watching all of their games so far in this edition of the Champions League, and he believes he now knows enough about them to avoid being upset by them tonight.
“After our match at home, I also watched the other matches of Melbourne Victory in the group so I know this team,” he said.
“I know that now it’s almost at the end of the group so every match is really important so for sure they will try their best in order to perform well tomorrow against us.
“I know that this team has really good organisation, it’s a really good team, really good individual skill and especially really good organisation so we know them, I saw them in the other matches and for sure we’re going try our best in order to achieve a victory.”
Photo: Matt Johnson