Melbourne Victory Head Coach Grant Brebner has named his 22-man squad for the resumption of the club’s AFC Champions League (ACL) campaign to be played in Qatar.
The squad departs for Doha tomorrow evening as it prepares for its four remaining Group Stage matches. Group E is a tight affair, with Victory currently sitting in third place on goal difference.
Victory’s first outing is against Beijing FC on Tuesday November 24 at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium. The two sides meet again on November 27, before Victory turns its attention to Chiangrai United (December 1) and FC Seoul (December 4).
The tournament will provide members and fans with the chance to see a number of the club’s new signings in action, including Jacob Butterfield, Ben Folami and Dylan Ryan.
Brebner said his squad is looking forward to playing against quality opposition.
“There is no doubt resuming our campaign mid-way through our pre-season is going to be extremely tough, but we see this as a great opportunity to bring our new squad together on and off the park,” Brebner said.
“We are taking away a squad which has a good blend of experience and youth. Given we have four games in 10 days, we will need to make sure everyone is ready to play should they be required.
“Our first two games against Beijing FC are vitally important to our chances of making it through the group stage, so our focus will be to put in really strong performances against them.
“It’s a privilege to coach in this tournament, it’s a privilege for our players to go and play in this tournament and we are focused on putting in the performances to progress through the group stage.”
Melbourne Victory AFC Champions League Squad
Matthew Acton
Aaron Anderson
Nick Ansell
Jay Barnett
Marko Bulic
Jacob Butterfield
Jacob Brimmer
Leigh Broxham
Max Crocombe
Ben Folami
Gianluca Iannucci
Elvis Kamsoba
Birkan Kirdar
Brandon Lauton
Luis Lawrie-Lattanzio
So Nishikawa
Callum McManaman
Marco Rojas
Storm Roux
Dylan Ryan
Adama Traore
Joshua Varga
*Please note, due to AFC regulations Steve Kean will be listed as Head Coach on the official team sheets. The regulations require each squad to include a Pro-Licence-holding coach.
