Head Coach Tony Popovic spoke to the media after Victory’s 0-0 derby draw against Melbourne City.
On the performance...
“I thought it was a great spectacle, intense passion, you know everything you expect from a Derby. We’ve had two away derbies now and I thought the players were outstanding today.”
“I’m pleased with the play, with the attacking, with the defending. I thought with Ryan Teague, Fabian Monge, a very young midfield, Eli, Nishan and Daniel, I thought all had big games. I thought those boys were really good and they’ll be backed up by the experienced players. The only thing thing that is disappointing is we didn’t win the game. But I thought it was a very good performance from us.”
“Of course, as a coach you always want to win games, but we’ve got to stick to our play and stick to playing the football we do and I thought it was probably the most dominant and mobile Victory has been in the derby for a very long time.”
“So you know, what do we do? Just throw away our game and just say, ‘Okay, let’s just try and get a win any way we can’? And of course, we want to win, but it’s hard to be disappointed with that performance in such a big game. It’s another draw but I thought today showed how well we are travelling in terms of our play.”
On Bruno Fornaroli…
“We expect him to train with the team tomorrow. So that’s how close he was for the game.”
On the short turnaround to Tuesday night’s match…
“Tomorrow, the boys will get together, of course, and reflect quickly on this game, but we have to move on.”
“If we can match that performance again, then we know we’re in a good position for Tuesday which will be tough. They’re at the bottom of the table but watching them play against Newcastle they did very well. So you know, they’ll get the respect they deserve and we need another top performance if we want to win the game.”
