Melbourne Victory are eyeing five Liberty A-League Women wins on the spin but are wary of a Perth Glory outfit that realistically must beat them to stay in the finals race.
Victory sit fourth and seven points ahead of the ninth-placed Glory ahead of Friday night’s clash at AAMI Park.
Jeff Hopkins’ reigning champions prevailed 3-0 over a 10-woman Perth in the reverse leg on December 11 but the Victory coach expected Alex Epakis’ Glory to fire up.
“If I was in that position I know what I’d be doing with our team and I know the type of performance that I’d be expecting from my team and we’re really expecting that,” Hopkins told AAP.
“The game last year when they came here and they put in a really good performance here, that’s probably fresh in their minds that they know they can come here and they have beaten us in the recent past.
“We’ll be doing everything that we can to make sure that we put in a really strong, tough, hard-working performance and I think if we can do that I’m confident that we can match it with any team in the league.”
New Zealand international and gun central defender Claudia Bunge (ankle) remains sidelined, as does striker Melina Ayres.
Victory will regain Elise Kellond-Knight from illness and with Gema Simon (calf) still sidelined, the experienced Matilda is among the options to play left-back.
“She can play left back – she got into the world XI as a left back (at the 2011 Women’s World Cup,” Hopkins said.
“We’ve tried a few things obviously with Gema out, we need to find the right mix.
“Beattie (Goad) has come in and done a great job for us but also we miss her further up the field. So there’s a few decisions for me to make in terms of the makeup of the team.”
Danish international Rikke Madsen is likely to start up top after impressing against Canberra.
