Victory defender Stefan Nigro says Wednesday night’s FFA Cup clash with Perth Glory in Adelaide provides a perfect opportunity to test the squad’s depth.
The two clubs will play off for a place in the round of 32, with both squads expected to rotate their starting XI’s with tight turnarounds ahead of Round 2 league action.
Victory flew out on Tuesday afternoon and will return home on Thursday to prepare for their home opener against Brisbane at AAMI Park on Sunday.
“For everyone who gets an opportunity, they want to impress The Boss and cement a spot in the team moving forward,” Nigro told media on Tuesday.
“We’ve got a deep squad and everyone who gets a chance will get a good opportunity to put 90 minutes under their belt.”
Victory got their season off to a great start on Saturday night with a 1-0 win over Western United in Geelong and hope to continue establishing a winning culture in the Cup.
“The mood has been really positive,” Nigro said.
“We’ve taken a lot of good things from the game and things we can improve on, and obviously we’re going to take that into the FFA Cup game tomorrow night.
“It’s a Cup match, it’s a one-off game, and we want to go there and progress into the next round.”
Wednesday night will be the fourth time Melbourne and Perth have squared off in the FFA Cup, including the 2015 Final where Victory secured the silverware with a 2-0 win.
Nigro says the whole-squad mentality brought by Tony Popovic will give the team every chance to advance through to the next round of the Cup.
“We’re a very tight bunch of boys,” he said. “On Saturday when we scored that winning goal, everyone on the bench was happy.
“After the game with the fans, everyone was getting around each other so that’s the culture and the environment that The Boss has implemented.”
The match will be streamed on 10play.com.au.
