Steve Corica speaks to the media ahead of Saturday\u2019s Semi-Final first leg clash against Adelaide United at Go Media Stadium.<\/p>\n
Auckland FC will play host to a second successive A-League semi-final this weekend after the team\u2019s victory on penalties in the Elimination Final last weekend against Melbourne City.<\/p>\n
Corica spoke briefly on last weekend\u2019s win, saying it might give the team an upper hand going into the semi-final.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlaying that week might help us as well, going to extra time also bonds the boys in that sort of situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve been there, done that, taken some quality penalties as well.\u201d Said Corica.<\/p>\n
Auckland will take any edge they can heading into the first leg against an on-form Adelaide United team, having only lost once in their last 15 games.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike I said, finals football is very different.\u201d Said Corica.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re a really good attacking team. We\u2019ve had four games against them, they\u2019ve all been really good games, three draws, and I think we won one.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen a couple of media reports from them that they aren\u2019t scared of anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNor are we.\u201d Said Corica.<\/p>\n
Liam Gillion came on in extra time and looked sharp in Auckland\u2019s Elimination Final win after spending most of the season with the Pro League squad.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Pro League team has helped him a lot, he wasn\u2019t playing so to get match minutes, the OFC team has come in handy for him, it\u2019s built his confidence back up.\u201d Said Corica.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can tell when he comes on now, he\u2019s back to himself, positive, creating opportunities and he set up a goal (against Sydney).\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got the qualities (to play in the A-League), he\u2019s exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut at the end of the day, what he needs to improve on, which he has done in the Pro League, is scoring goals and creating opportunities. It\u2019s good to be exciting, but you also need to have an end product.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he has that end product.\u201d Said Corica.<\/p>\n
Some positive injury news for Corica as Francis de Vries looks to crack back into the side after spending some time on the sideline.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019ll (de Vries) be in the squad, it\u2019s good news for us.\u201d Said Corica.<\/p>\n
\u201cCallan Elliot\u2019s been doing a great job, obviously last week I thought he was probably Man of the Match, but obviously good to have Francis (de Vries) back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Corica gave other updates on the injury front with Nando Pijnaker coming back last weekend and Sam Cosgrove and Jesse Randall playing through injury last weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cNando (Pijnaker) is still building, so we\u2019ll see how we go at the end of the week.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s (Cosgrove) very good, he\u2019s trained all week. You know he\u2019s got a good pain tolerance.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he (Cosgrove) got a lot of confidence out of that game as well because he felt he could do it now. He straps it (ankle) up as tight as possible and carries on, which is brave of him.\u201d Said Corica.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe (Randall) looks a lot better this week than last week, he was a little tender I think last week. This week\u2019s been a good week for him at training.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s raring to go.\u201d Said Corica.<\/p>\n