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Newcastle Jets in search of vital Asian win

Newcastle Jets are in need of a win in against Beijing Guoan in the Asian Champions League on Wednesday.

The Jets find themselves on four points from four group stage matches but need at least a victory over the Chinese club to give themselves a chance of qualifying for the next round.

Beijing are on the same points as the Jets meaning a win for the A-League club is vital and after a luckless loss to Nagoya Grampus last match, the Jets are focused to achieve a positive result.

"There's no doubt we would have liked to have beaten Nagoya two weeks ago, because if you look at these type of competitions, winning at home is imperative to qualifying from the group stages," Jets technical director Branko Culina said.

"So that makes this game incredibly vital for us. At training last Friday you could see how determined and focused the players were.

We've played every team at least once, and there's no surprises any more, and we know that if we're going to qualify for the next round we need to win this and probably the week after as well."

Culina added that the Jets had learnt much more about their opponents since they met in the opening match in early March.

"The coaches have been planning meticulously for this game since we first played Beijing, and we've learnt so much about them since then," he added.

"We've watched all their other ACL matches very closely, looked at their Chinese Super League games, and our coaching staff are confident they know exactly what Beijing are capable of."

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