TEAM NEWS: Blackburn Rovers v Sydney (From Lancashire Telegraph)

TEAM NEWS: Blackburn Rovers v Sydney

10:03am Saturday 31st July 2010

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VINCE Grella starts his first match of pre-season for Blackburn Rovers this morning as they look to end their trip to Australia with a win over Sydney.

Amid speculation, Galatasaray are set to renew their interest in the Australian midfielder, Grella starts in the centre of midfield alongside Steven Nzonzi.

Rovers insist they have not received a fresh approach from the Turkish club and expect Grella to be at Rovers for the start of the Premier League season.

Nikola Kalinic and Chris Samba miss out again throigh injury, but both are expected to feature in next weekend's double header in Scotland.

With Jason Roberts also not included in the squad, substitute Maceo Rigters is the only recognised striker with El-Hadji Diouf expected to take the centre forward role.

Rovers complete the three-match tournament down under looking for their first win this morning against hosts Sydney.

Having previously lost to Rangers and AEK Athens, Sam Allardyce is looking for his side to sign out in style.

Allardyce said: “Hopefully we can get a few more of the senior players out against Sydney FC and finish our tournament with a positive win rather than the two disappointing defeats we’ve had.

“At the moment it is all about the senior players getting their match fitness up, but too many have been injured like Chris Samba and Niko Kalinic.

“Then we’ve got the World Cup players just coming back like Brett, Vince, Lars and Ryan. So we’ve got to get all those players back in the squad and then we become a different team.”

ROVERS: Mark Bunn, Michel Salgado, Martin Olsson, Ryan Nelsen, Gael Givet, Vince Grella, Brett Emerton, David Dunn, Morten Gamst Pedersen, El Hadji Diouf, Steven Nzonzi

SUBS: Keith Andrews, Paul Robinson, Lars Jacobsen, Phil Jones, Grant Hanley, Pascal Chimbonda, Amine Linganzi, Josh Morris, Maceo Rigters, Junior Hoilett SYDNEY: Reddy, Sebastian Ryall, Brendan Gan, Stuart Musialik, Nick Carle, Kofi Danning, Shannon Cole, Antony Golec, Alex Brosque, Terry McFlynn, Matthew Jurman

SUBS: Guilo, Bridge, Necevski, Jamieson, Byun, Grant, Antonis, Moriyasu, Mitchell

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