Western Sydney Wanderers can complete a run that will go down in Asian football lore when they take a 1-0 lead into the Asian Champions League final second leg against Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal on Saturday night.
Just two years after their formation, the tournament debutants from Sydney’s unfashionable west stand on the brink of becoming Australia’s first Asian club champions.
Victory over Hilal would be another shot in the arm for Australia’s A-League and a timely boost as the country prepares to host the Asian Cup in January.
Substitute Tomi Juric’s 64th-minute strike took the Wanderers halfway to victory, although there is much work to do in what will be a cauldron atmosphere in Riyadh.
Hilal will come out “all guns blazing” in front of a massive crowd at their home King Fahd Stadium, but Western Sydney will not be cowed, according to Wanderers keeper Ante Covic.
Covic has been the Australian side’s most vociferous player ahead of tonight’s clash, this week branding the Saudi side as “arrogant”. He is keen to keep up the fighting talk.
“There’s going to be 65-odd thousand Hilal supporters and they’re going to make it as intimidating as possible and try and wear us down in that aspect,” said Covic, who was impressive in the 1-0 first leg win in Sydney. “But we’re not going to fall under that kind of pressure. We know that they’re going to be confident, they’re playing at home and they’re rubbing it in our faces how daunting it’s going to be in front of their fans and how we’ve seen nothing yet.
“We’re not going to fall for those traps. We just know that we’re going to be in for a good, hard, solid game against a quality opposition.”
While the Wanderers topped the regular-season table and reached the grand final in their inaugural A-League season in 2012/13, few would have expected them to go so far in their first Champions League campaign.
Wanderers players say their coach, ex-Crystal Palace player Tony Popovic, has been key to their success.
“He had a vision from the very start,” winger Shannon Cole said.
Having defeated Japanese champions Sanfrecce Hiroshima in the round of 16, defending champions Guangzhou Evergrande in the last eight and last year’s runners-up FC Seoul in the semi-finals, the Wanderers have earned their title shot.
“We’re very confident. I think maybe our performance in the first game wasn’t the best but we still got a result out of it, so I think in the second game we can expect even more,” midfielder Mateo Poljak said yesterday.
“I think we can be more positive and be more organised, and maybe dangerous, in the opponents’ half.”
Only about a dozen Wanderers supporters will be in the stands, but the Western Sydney players say that will not bother them.
“We know that back home we’ll have the whole country behind us,” defender Matthew Spiranovic said. “We are 90 minutes away from what is a piece of history for us,” said striker Brendon Santalab, who dislocated his shoulder in the first leg but said he is recovering well. “I’m not sure if I’ll be starting but I’ll be in contention to play, that’s for sure.”
KHARIRI SET TO MAKE SOME HISTORY
Laurentiu Reghecampf, Al Hilal’s coach, promised that the 65,000 Saudi fans expected to fill King Fahd International Stadium for the Asian Champions League final leg will not go home disappointed, but the Western Sydney Wanderers will.
Sydney will “stay a small team” the Romanian said at a pre-match press conference where he appeared wearing sunglasses and a traditional white Saudi robe and headdress.
One Hilal player will be trying to make his bit piece of history.
Midfielder Saud Khariri can become the first player to win three Champions League winner’s medals after helping Saudi rivals Al Ittihad to consecutive victories in 2004 and 2005.
“This is my fourth final as I have already won two and lost one,” said Khariri, 34, who also played for Ittihad in their 2-1 defeat to South Korea’s Pohang Steelers in 2009.
“For my own ambition it would be a dream to win this cup again, and also for the club. They have been waiting a long time.”
In Riyadh, fans will hope to see Hilal overturn a 1-0 deficit and lift their first continental trophy since the Asian Cup Winners’ Cup in 2002.
It will be a lucrative victory for Hilal if they win on aggregate. A Saudi prince has offered players and team officials a victory bonus of US$26,600 (Dh97,000) each.
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