Head Coach David Zdrilic is relishing the prospect of seeing his Glory side test themselves against one of world football’s greatest clubs when they take on AC Milan in Thursday’s high-profile international friendly at HBF Park (kick-off at 620pm, tickets available HERE).
Click HERE to view his full pre-match media conference.
The Italian giants warmed up for the second trip to Perth in as many years by downing English Premier League champions Liverpool 4-2 in Hong Kong, having earlier been edged out 1-0 by Arsenal in Singapore.
And Zdrilic believes there will be plenty for a bumper crowd to enjoy when the Rossoneri make their third pre-season tour outing against the men in purple.
“To play against AC Milan or any top team is always a special occasion and we’re going to treat it like that,” he said.
“Having seen the games they played against Liverpool and Arsenal leading into this, they have a fantastic squad.
“They’re a very good transition team, they can sit back and hit you in a few seconds and that’s what they did to Liverpool.
“They scored four goals like that; soaking up a lot of pressure comfortably and then going forward.
“It’ll be interesting to see if they do that against us or have more of the possession, but the quality in the squad is just unbelievable.
“We’re going to relish the occasion and make sure that the players get learnings out of it.
“This is a top, top game for us at this stage of pre-season and we’re going to go out and enjoy it.
“We’re approaching this game with the idea of enjoying the experience, but also getting our team gelling well together against top class opposition.”
The Milan fixture will be Glory’s second in the space of four days following a weather-disrupted Australia Cup Round of 32 clash with Wellington Phoenix and although his charges were ultimately defeated in a penalty shootout, the Head Coach drew plenty of positives from the game.
“Physically, I thought we were very good,” he said.
“That was our first hit-out, we hadn’t had any friendly games and to play out 120 minutes at what I thought was a very good level with a lot of new players was excellent.
“We had a chance right towards the end of that second period of extra-time and Rizzo [Josh Risdon] made a full length of the pitch run down the line to put the cross in, so it was good to see that.
“It was a disappointing result.
“Against a team like Wellington, if you go 1-0 down, they make it very difficult, they’ve done that many time.
“But we had our chances, got back into the game and I thought we had really good momentum going into that first period of extra-time and I think the lightning interruption broke that a little bit.
“I still thought we were good in extra-time, but once it goes to penalties, it’s a lottery.
“I still thought the boys were good.”
In terms of squad news ahead of Thursday, Zdrilic confirmed that there could be some additions to the personnel who featured in the Australia Cup.
“[Lachie] Wales and [Luke] Amos have trained today, so they only missed [Wellington] by a few days really, Will Freney the same,” he said.
“They are a chance to play [against Milan] but we won’t be taking any risks.
“I think you’ll see some players who weren’t in the Cup game get some minutes.
“It’s a great occasion, but we want to make sure that everybody’s fit to play how ever many minutes they’re going to play.”
Milan, meanwhile, are targeting significant improvement this season after finishing eighth in Serie A last year.
Massimiliano Allegri has returned as Head Coach having previously steered the club to the Serie A and Coppa Italia titles in 2011 before enjoying a remarkable run of success with Juventus which saw the Turin giants crowned league Champions on five successive occasions between 2014 and 2019.
The visitors’ squad is packed with senior internationals, including US star Christian Pulisic, Portuguese winger Rafael Leao, French midfielder Youssouf Fofana and Swiss forward Noah Okafor who scored two of their goals in the win over Liverpool.
Milan will be targeting a remarkable 20th Serie A title when they kick off their 2025/26 Serie A campaign with a home game against Cremonese on 24th August.
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Match Preview: Zdrila relishing prospect of “great occasion” against AC Milan
