On paper it may resemble a nightmare schedule but Brisbane Roar coach John Aloisi has said his A-League side have embraced the addition of an AFC Champions League (ACL) play-off campaign to their fixture list.
Aloisi would have been forgiven for bemoaning the timing of Tuesday night's playoff in Brisbane with Filipino outfit Ceres-Negros -- five days before a crunch A-League clash with Central Coast in Gosford.
And the struggling Roar will have to plan for an additional ACL playoff against Tianjin Quanjian in China next Tuesday, should they overcome the underdone Filipino outfit at the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre.
However, Aloisi said the potentially tough schedule that lay ahead did not faze his troops as they looked to reignite their season and move up from eighth on the A-League ladder.
"I thought it would be a welcome distraction and it has been; it's something different to the A-League," he said.
"You always have to prepare for what is around the corner, book flights and get things organised which is not easy.
"(But) we can't look too forward past that (Tuesday night game)."
Ceres-Negros coach Risto Vidakovic did his best to play down expectations for his side which has had just seven training sessions together in their pre-season.
They were still able to eliminate Myanmar side Shan United on penalties last week in their opening ACL playoff.
"It is the second week of the pre-season for us, we are obviously not prepared to play these kinds of games but we will try to give our best," he said.
"You never know in football anything can happen, football is full of surprises."
Ceres-Negros booked a playoff spot by claiming the inaugural Philippines Football League title last season with a 4-1 grand final win over Global, the Filipino team Brisbane thrashed 6-0 in last year's corresponding Champions League playoff.
But Roar captain Matt McKay said Brisbane weren't getting ahead of themselves.
"We can't look ahead to China. If we are not on our game we are not going to go to China," he said.
"We want to test ourselves and we want to be in Asia (Champions League)."
Aloisi said the Roar would field a side on Tuesday night similar to the XI that held out Perth Glory 3-2 last weekend, snapping a three-game losing run.
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