A-League: Tony Popovic tells Glory to embrace heat for Wanderers visit

Forecast maximums of 40C are not a worry to Perth Glory coach Tony Popovic ahead of Saturday’s clash against Western Sydney.

Tony Popovic has urged Glory players not to fear the fiery conditions on Saturday. Picture: Getty Images

Forecast maximums of 40C are not a worry to Perth Glory coach Tony Popovic ahead of Saturday’s A-League clash against Western Sydney.

The Glory welcome Popovic’s former club to HBF Stadium amid a heatwave in the West Australian capital but the former Socceroos defender is telling his team not to fear the fiery conditions.

“We should embrace the heat. It’s the same for both sides and we train in the heat and we need to show the benefits for that for us in how we control a game in very difficult conditions,” he said.

“They’re not ideal to play football, we understand that, but we’ve just got to face whatever is put in front of us.

“The conditions will be one of the challenges on top of a good opponent.”

Heat of a different kind is being applied to the Wanderers and coach Markus Babbel after last weekend’s loss to Wellington.

Babbel has since been cited by the FFA for his post-match comments about a VAR decision that led to the Phoenix’s winning penalty and his team have now lost four matches on the bounce.

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Despite that poor run of form, Popovic is wary of his team undoing the work of their impressive 3-0 win over Melbourne City last weekend. “We know they haven’t had the results recently but when you have a look at their recent performance against Wellington the first half was very good and (they were a) very dynamic team in the front third,” he said. “We’ll have to be on top of our game.”

Meanwhile, Melbourne Victory forward Andrew Nabbout said Saturday’s A-League clash with Wellington Phoenix is an opportunity for the club to “silence the critics”.

Victory have won just two of nine games, but Nabbout said Victory had taken time to gel after an off-season of change.

AAP