Aurelio Vidmar is under no illusions regarding the task that lies ahead as he prepares Melbourne City for their AFC Champions League Elite™ 2025/26 opener against Japan’s Sanfrecce Hiroshima at Melbourne Rectangular Stadium on Tuesday.

 

Heading into his fifth continental campaign as a head coach – the first three were with Adelaide United while this is his second with Melbourne City – the former Socceroo knows his squad face a supreme test of their abilities over the coming months.

“The new format is a lot stronger, there are quality teams throughout,” the 58-year-old says of the recently revamped competition. “You get four quality home games and four quality away games. I think with the new format it’s been much better.

 

“For us it’s definitely going to be a challenge. We saw that with Central Coast Mariners last year. They found it a little bit difficult because we (A-League teams) have much smaller budgets and much younger players.

 

“We’ve got a fairly young side as well. We’ve still got a reasonably strong team but we’ll be up against some quality teams. It’s absolutely going to be a challenge for us, but we’ll go in there and have a little crack and see where it goes.”

Last season’s struggles for Central Coast (pictured above), winners of the AFC Cup™ 2023/24 but who picked up only one point in the AFC Champions League Elite in the following campaign, highlighted the difficulties teams from Australia can experience in Asia’s premier club competition.

 

The timing of the competition, which kicks off weeks before the start of the domestic campaign, coupled with small budgets and a tight salary cap have often made life difficult for teams from Down Under.

 

But Vidmar has succeeded against the odds in the past, leading unfancied Adelaide United (pictured below) to the final in 2008, seeing off the likes of Kashima Antlers and Pohang Steelers before eventually losing over two legs in the decider to Gamba Osaka.

His Melbourne City side have qualified for the AFC Champions League Elite by virtue of their second-place finish in last season’s A-League regular season standings and sees the club return to the competition having previously appeared in the 2022 and 2023-24 editions.

 

City exited the competition in the group phase on both of those occasions, with an equaliser deep into injury time by Zhejiang FC’s Nyasha Mushekwi depriving the club of the opportunity to reach the knockout rounds in their most recent involvement.

 

That failure to advance to the last 16 is one in a series of disappointments for Australian teams in the competition, with no A-League side reaching the knockout rounds since Melbourne Victory advanced from the group phase in 2020.

 

With the AFC Champions League Elite kicking off a month before the A-League – which is due to start this year on October 17 – Australian outfits often have the disadvantage of not being as match-fit as their opponents when the league phase commences.

“It’s difficult. Unfortunately in Australia we have such a long preseason,” says Vidmar. “We’re not going to be totally where we should be, especially because we’re not in the course of our season and Hiroshima are.

 

“Hiroshima have had a lot of games, they’ve had quite a hectic schedule. But it is what it is and we’ll just have to deal with it. We’ll continue to do what we have to do and we’ll be strong mentally and adapt.

 

“Like all the Japanese teams, they’re highly technical, extremely fit, very aggressive so we know that we’re going to have a very, very tough game. But we’ll just try to do our best and see where it takes us.”

The match-up with Hiroshima will allow Vidmar to renew acquaintances with officials from a club where he played from 1998 to 1999 before his team also face Vissel Kobe, Buriram United, Machida Zelvia, Johor Darul Ta’zim, FC Seoul, Ulsan HD and Gangwon FC.

 

The Swiss league format presents a new challenge for Vidmar and his squad and it is something he is relishing as Melbourne City chase a top eight finish and a place in the knockout rounds.

 

“We’ve got a few players here who have been in the last campaign 18 months ago, but that was in the old format with the group stages,” he says.

 

“We unfortunately were a couple of seconds away from qualifying for the Round of 16 and we conceded a goal to draw one-all. But the teams are completely different.

 

“Back then, in the group stages you had one from Thailand, one from Japan and a third one, a Korean or a Chinese team, and it was reasonably even. But the quality of the competition now is much greater, as you can see on our side. And the west is even harder.

 

“It’s always a positive when teams are spending more money and teams are wanting to improve, especially in the Middle East. They’re always trying to improve the quality of the football.”

So after the disappointments of the past and despite the challenges his team face, does Vidmar believe Melbourne City can make a positive impact on the AFC Champions League Elite?

“We’ll always be confident, regardless of what happens,” he says. “That’s the nature of Melbourne City, that's the nature of the City Football Group.

“We’ll always think that we will go onto the pitch looking to win every game. That’s not going to change. Whether we’re good enough, we’re about to find out. We’re up against really quality teams so we’ll have to be brave.

“We’re going to continue to do what we’ve been doing here in our domestic competition, trying to be on the front foot and trying to dominate. We know the quality’s different and it’s going to be a good test.

“But regardless of what happens, it will just give us a better impetus going into our own competition as well.”