Melbourne Victory coach Jeff Hopkins is banking on his team’s finals know-how to overcome Adelaide United’s excitement in Sunday’s A-League Women’s elimination final.
Adelaide United – Melbourne Victory
- Adelaide face Melbourne this Sunday in the A-League Women’s elimination final.
- The winners will face Melbourne City in the preliminary final.
- This is United’s first A-League Women’s finals run.
More A-League Women’s news can be found on The Women’s Game.
The Reds are heading into their first A-League finals campaign after finally breaking their long wait to reach the playoffs.
They’ll welcome Hopkins’ battle-hardened outfit to Coopers Stadium as Victory begin a quest to defend the championship they won in an upset grand-final triumph over Sydney FC last season.
Victory limped into the finals, failing to win any of their last five home-and-away fixtures including a 3-0 thumping by Adelaide the last time the two teams met.
They’ll also be without suspended star Kyra Cooney-Cross as Hopkins admitted he’s unsure how Adelaide will handle their maiden A-League Women finals appearance.
“It could go one of two ways,” Hopkins said.
“They could be really buzzing for the fact that they’re in their first final but also it could go the other way and there could be some nerves that affect performance as well.
“We know what we’ve got to do this weekend.
“It’s down to us now to go there and to really show ourselves that we’re capable of putting in the performance that we know that we’re capable of.”
Golden Boot winner Fiona Worts bagged a hat-trick when the Reds thumped Victory last month.
The English forward said while finals are a new thing for Adelaide’s women’s team, sudden-death football is far from unknown territory for her and her teammates.
“Maybe for United players haven’t been in this position but I think a lot of us have in other teams,” Worts said.
“I’ve been in cup finals and cup games before and I know a lot of the other girls have. It’s different but it’s the same thing really.”
The winner of Sunday’s game will go on to face Melbourne City next week for a spot in the grand final against Sydney FC while the loser goes home.
The full A-League Women’s schedule can be found using this link.