Argyle are bottom of the Championship but are just three points adrift of safety after last week’s dramatic come from behind victory over Sheffield United.
There’s very little room for error if Plymouth are to pull off an unlikely escape, but Muslic believes his side – who knocked Liverpool out of the FA Cup and have made a fight of Championship survival – can once again defy the odds.
He said: “We have to travel to Middlesbrough and try to surprise again. This will be another massive challenge, a top opponent. It is how it is. You can’t pick them anymore, and that’s okay. We believe that we can do this.”
“It’s a rollercoaster. But actually this team showed that we can follow up and we can win back-to-back. It was against West Brom, Liverpool and Millwall.
“We need this script and this scenario again to have a chance.”
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Muslic has been plotting how to try and keep two former Plymouth stars in Finn Azaz and Morgan Whittaker under wraps.
Azaz left Argyle long before Muslic’s arrival, but the Austrian was in charge when Whittaker swapped Home Park for the Riverside in January – and his comments sparked fury from the now-Boro forward.
With Whittaker on the verge of leaving Plymouth, Muslic claimed the winger had failed to turn up to play against Burnley.
Those claims were strongly denied by a distraught Whittaker, who hit back and said it was agreed beforehand that he wouldn’t be selected. He was left “devastated” by the “backlash”.
Muslic praised both Whittaker and Azaz ahead of Good Friday’s reunion, but believes his Plymouth side can exploit Boro’s weaknesses.
He said: “First of all, they have two former Argyle players, with a lot of individual quality, on the left and right, with Finn and with Morgan.
“In my opinion, they are the best team in possession, the best team with the ball, very dominant, very structured when they have the ball, but also things where we can hurt them if we do our things right and if our setup is structured.
“We’re going to face another heavyweight opponent, especially away, but it’s also a pattern throughout the whole season, especially since January, against the big teams we’re collecting points. Why not again on Friday?”
Ahead of the game, Plymouth have been charged by the FA after the ugly scenes that marred the end of their win over Sheffield United.
Tempers flared after Argyle kept alive their survival hopes with two goals in the last 10 minutes from Ryan Hardie and Muhamed Tijani cancelling out Jesurun Rak-Sakyi’s first-half strike, dealing a huge blow to United’s hopes of automatic promotion.
Blades boss Chris Wilder called his players into an on-pitch huddle at the final whistle but, when walking off, the Blades boss confronted Darko Gyabi and Mustapha Bundu, who appeared to be celebrating in front of United’s travelling fans.
Others then got involved as they moved into the tunnel, with the incident caught by television cameras.
An FA spokesperson said: “Plymouth Argyle and Sheffield United have been charged following the mass confrontation at their EFL Championship fixture on Saturday, 12 April.
“It’s alleged that both clubs failed to ensure their players and/or technical area staff didn’t behave in an improper and/or provocative way around the tunnel area after the final whistle.
“Plymouth Argyle and Sheffield United have to provide their respective responses by Wednesday, 23 April.”
Speaking after the match, Wilder had sought to play down the incident, describing it as “absolutely nothing really”.
“They’re celebrating a big win and they’re coming off and unfortunately our supporters are in the stand right next to the tunnel so yeah… get everybody in,” he said.
“I spoke to their manager (Miron Muslic) and he was as good as gold, understands the situation as much as I do and the referee and the assessor (do as well).”
