Adelaide United Head Coach Airton Andrioli hailed a \u201cspecial\u201d night for the Reds after a dramatic 2-1 win over Melbourne City secured second place and a home semi-final, with Luka Jovanovi\u0107\u2019s late double sealing the result in unforgettable fashion.<\/p>\n
Andrioli praised the group\u2019s mentality, the impact of Craig Goodwin off the bench, and the togetherness across the entire club as Adelaide pushed for the win right until the final moment.<\/p>\n
Andrioli on the emotion of the finish and the performance\u2026
\u201cI guess that\u2019s why we all love football, isn\u2019t it? Football\u2019s got some tough moments, but moments like this happen. You just can\u2019t describe it. I\u2019m extremely happy for everything that happened tonight, and extremely proud of the whole club, the coaching staff, the players, and especially the way we came here today. We came here, we just took the game to them, and in the end of the day, I think the best team got the result.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andrioli on Craig Goodwin\u2019s impact off the bench\u2026
\u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019ve got players of that calibre. Also M\u0169niz \u2013 the pass he played in the counter, he was facing the opposite way and we on the bench were saying, \u2018Can you see him?\u2019 He played the ball to Goody and the goal came from there. He\u2019s a player that has experience and a lot of attributes, so it was good to see him coming back. We\u2019re extremely proud of this moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andrioli on Jovanovi\u0107\u2019s rollercoaster night\u2026
\u201cHe is a little bit disappointed, and we are also disappointed [with the red card], but I\u2019ll take that any day of the week \u2013 coming on and scoring the two goals. Credit to him. He was a bit disappointed because he wasn\u2019t playing. Obviously we chose Anselmo above him because Anselmo has got different characteristics. It\u2019s nothing to do with the player \u2013 it\u2019s about what\u2019s best for the team and the opposition we play. I said to him before the match, \u2018Don\u2019t drop your head. Stay positive. Play the game together with the team on the bench, and if you have an opportunity to come on, do what you do best,\u2019 and credit to him for doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andrioli on finishing second, qualifying for Asia and the journey so far\u2026
\u201cIt\u2019s such an incredible feeling when you work together. I\u2019ve known some of these boys from the age of 10 and always worked closely with them, seeing them growing up. It\u2019s a great feeling. I believe in God and I believe God\u2019s got his own time. I spent a lot of time waiting for an opportunity to be at this level. It\u2019s a step in the right direction. A lot has happened \u2013 second place, Asia, a week off now. I like that because we are a team that when we have time to prepare, we normally prepare well. I\u2019m over the moon, proud of every moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andrioli on being underestimated and the environment built at the club\u2026
\u201cI want to thank all the people that did not believe in us, because that was a great advantage for us. Nobody talking about us, but we did behind closed doors. We believed in what we were building. Eventually things started clicking, the players were buying into that belief, gelling together, and we are such a close group. Not just the players, but all the coaching staff. I\u2019ll challenge anyone to find a better environment in Australia to come to training. We want to be there, we don\u2019t want to leave, we want to continue to do the work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andrioli on earning a home semi-final at Coopers Stadium\u2026
\u201cNobody wins the game before it starts. It\u2019s still something you have to earn. But we\u2019re so happy that we can play in front of our fans, in front of our supporters. That will be something very special. I can\u2019t wait to see a full house at Coopers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andrioli on belief, focus and embracing the break\u2026
\u201cIf you can\u2019t be focused knowing what\u2019s ahead of you, then you shouldn\u2019t be in this game. I don\u2019t think we need to worry about keeping the boys focused. I see this as an adventure. I believe in the work you do, having time on the training ground to prepare certain things, to tweak and change, and making sure that we\u2019ve got the \u2018what ifs\u2019 and alternatives. That\u2019s something that we\u2019ve done well before.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adelaide United Head Coach Airton Andrioli hailed a \u201cspecial\u201d night for the Reds after a dramatic 2-1 win…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[341,395,957,958,376],"class_list":{"0":"post-364","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-adelaide","8":"tag-a-league","9":"tag-adelaide","10":"tag-adelaide-united","11":"tag-featured","12":"tag-press-conference"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}