Reds confident of A-League semi upset over City

Adelaide United and Melbourne City expect another tight match with scores at 0-0 ahead of the second leg of their A-League Men semi-final at AAMI Park.

Adelaide United are confident they can pull off one of the great A-League Men boil-overs by upsetting Melbourne City at home to snatch a grand final spot.

Adelaide United - Melbourne City

The Reds meet City in their second-leg semi-final.
Both sides held each other to a goalless draw in the first-leg.
Adelaide won one match against City this year, tied the three other encounters.

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Scores are level heading into the semi-final second leg at AAMI Park after United and City ground out a 0-0 draw at Coopers Stadium on Wednesday night.

"The boys are very confident. They've pulled up very well from the game on Wednesday," Adelaide coach Carl Veart said.

"We know it's our third game in seven days but...they're feeling very fresh.

"It's an important game and when finals come around, all the players want to play, because they're big games."

Adelaide have plenty of reasons to be confident despite facing a team attempting to complete back-to-back season doubles after topping the ladder again this season.

The Reds won their only game against City played in Melbourne 2-1 earlier this season while all three games at Hindmarsh were draws.

"The game on Wednesday was very similar to the three previous games we had against them," Veart said.

"They were quite close, entertaining games and I think the game tomorrow will be very similar to what it was on Wednesday

"Hopefully though we can get a couple of goals and keep them to a clean sheet again.

"It's very difficult but our defence did a great job on Wednesday to keep them to limited opportunities and hopefully we can do that again tomorrow."

Our biggest game of the season 😤#MCYvADL
— Adelaide United (@AdelaideUnited) May 21, 2022

City haven't beaten any of their fellow top-four sides in their 10 games against Victory, Western United and Adelaide this season.

But Socceroos winger Marco Tilio played down that poor record for his team.

"If you look back at those games through the season, I think we deserved to win a few of them from my memory," he said.

"It's not something that we've been speaking about. We don't think about those things.

"Finals football's always different ... it's a different type of game."

Tilio was one of the breakout stars in City's run to last season's championship and he was confident the reigning champions could deliver something special again.

"That's what it comes down to is that one moment in a game when a player stands up and wants to perform and bring something to the team," he said.

"We've got more than enough players who can do that, considering our side.

"I assume someone will stand up on Sunday and we'll hopefully get the win which will take us to the grand final."