‘We know it’s a tough game’ – Vidošić previews Brighton’s trip to Aston Villa | OneFootball

Brighton & Hove Albion head coach Dario Vidošić is expecting a tough game when his side travel to Aston Villa in the fifth round of the Adobe Women’s FA Cup this weekend.

The Seagulls have impressed in large parts of the season so far while this weekend’s opponents are improving and now have new boss Natalia Arroyo at the helm.

When speaking to the media in the pre-match press conference, Brighton & Hove Albion boss Vidošić admitted that he is expecting a tough game and that Arroyo’s recent appointment adds an element of unpredictability to the tie.

“It’s a tough game,” Vidošić said. “It’s also made tougher with Aston Villa having appointed a new manager. I believe that this will be her second week with the squad, so they’ll probably work on something this week and we will have to adjust within the game to see if there are any changes. I expect that there will be a few little tweaks to what they were doing with the previous manager to now.

“They’re a very good team, very good players and they’re at home. We know it’s a tough game but we had a really good game the first time that we played each other and I think this weekend will be no different.”

Vidošić went on to say that he has reviewed Arroyo’s playing style during her time at former club Real Socieded but explained that those principles may not necessarily be mirrored at Aston Villa.

He said “We have had a little look [at Arroyo’s style at Real Sociedad] but you can’t always take the same ideas and try to apply it with a completely different set of players. She will have come in and assessed what they can and can’t do and worked out what she thinks is the best.

“I’ve seen a webinar of hers online where she actually referenced us, a goal we scored against Everton, and said that this is the football that she would like to play. It might be two similar styles of football going up against each other, so I’m looking forward to it.

“It was a nice compliment that another coach sees what we do and is encouraged by that and would like to apply a similar style to their team. We wish her well and I’m looking forward to the game against her squad.”

Brighton & Hove Albion defeated Aston Villa 4-2 at Crawley in the last meeting back in October and Vidošić is not ruling out a similar level of excitement.

He said “I’m not too sure [if it’ll be another thriller], we will see. Against Chelsea, they showed that they want to build-up, they want to press. We are similar in that how we’ve played throughout the season.

“It’s going to be a good game. They’ve got a lot of dangerous players up top, they’ve got a very good squad. I’m not sure that it’ll be too different to the first game. It was a lot of fun, there were a lot of adjustments within the game, it was on an edge and it was quite early in our season where we were learning.

“I’m looking forward to it, I’m excited by it but we’re not thinking about Wembley. We are firmly thinking about Aston Villa on Saturday and then hopefully, we can get ourselves into the draw.”

Brighton & Hove Albion’s Adobe Women’s FA Cup fifth round tie at Aston Villa kicks-off at 12pm on Saturday afternoon.