RIYADH: Western Sydney Wanderers can complete a run that will go down in Asian football lore when they take a 1-0 lead into the AFC Champions League final second leg today.
Just two years after their formation, the tournament debutants from Sydney’s unfashionable west stand on the brink of becoming Australia’s first ever Asian club champions.
Victory over Saudi giants Al 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 heaven, although there is much work to do in what will be a cauldron atmosphere in Riyadh.
“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,” said midfielder Mateo Poljak.
“I think we can be more positive and be more organised, and maybe dangerous, in the opponents’ half.” 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 maiden AFC Champions League campaign.
One Al Hilal player will be trying to make his own piece of history. Midfielder Saud Khariri can become the first player to win three AFC Champions League winner’s medals after helping Saudi rivals Al Ittihad to back-to-back victories in 2004 and 2005.
“This is my fourth final as I have already won two and lost one,” said the 34-year-old.”AFP
