Run down before the ACL Match - Gamba Osaka vs. Melbourne Victory

Hi everyone,

Let's look at Victory's overall statistics across all of the seasons they've featured in the AFC Champions League:

Our wins across the history being:

• 2008, against Chunnam Dragons @ Melbourne, Australia (2-0)

• 2008, against Chonbury FC @ Melbourne, Australia (3-1)

• 2010, against Kawasaki Frontale @ Melbourne, Australia (1-0)

• 2011, against Tianjin Teda @ Melbourne, Australia (2-1)

• 2014, against Muangthong United @ Geelong, Australia (2-1)

• 2014, against Yokohama F. Marinos @ Melbourne, Australia (1-0)

• 2014, against Guangzhou Evergrande @ Melbourne, Australia (2-0)

• 2016, against Shanghai SIPG @ Melbourne, Australia (2-1)

We've never won a game outside of Australia and have failed to get past the group stage. We're definitely an outsider compared to some of the success other Australian teams have shown at this event, however we could have arguably one of our best teams to give it a shot this year; even without Finkler and Fahid Ben Khalfallah - however; China has spent ridiculous amounts (Texeira $75m, Martinez $62.5m, Ramires $42m, Gervinho $27m, Guarin $20m, Zhang Lu $15m, Sun Ke $14m, Gil $13m, Agusto $12m, Lavezzi being undisclosed) so that doesn't mean much at all.

We've struggled for form this year in the A-League, and it's starting to hurt us with notable outburst from Fahid Ben Khalfallah not hiding his frustrating after drawing 1-1 against a 10 man Sydney FC side clearly showing that it's starting to get to us and that defensive lapses are still something we suffer from.

Do we have the stones to give it a red hot crack? Time will tell.. and if it's worth my opinion, lacking a solid midfielder in the mould of Valeri is going to cost us big time.