[dropcaps style=’2′]Western Sydney Wanderers forged continental football history on Saturday night, holding Al Hilal to a 0-0 draw at King Fahd International Sports Stadium in Saudi Arabia proceeding the second leg of the Asian Champions League final to win 1-0 on aggregated points.[/dropcaps]
Ante Covic turned miracle save after miracle save in a heroic performance in goal, keeping the heavily favoured Saudis racing the clock to gain advantage and cling to hope for victory as Western Sydney became the first ever Australian club to be given the honourable title of Asian champions.
[image src=’http://fnx.network/fnxnetwork/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/juric_wsw.jpg’ width=’450′ height=’250′ title=’Source: WSW, FFA’ align=’right’]Only one other club from Australia’s A-League has reached the Asian Champions League final. Adelaide United competed during the 2008 tournament final, unfortunately fated to fall 5-0 on combined leg points to Gamba Osaka of Japan.
Victory over Hilal marked a powerful rise to prominence for the club homed in Sydney’s western suburbs. The team from Western Sydney were only founded in 2012, nonetheless below the steerage of coach Tony Popovic they won the A-League season Premiership in their initial season of competition and made appearances at the A-League Finals in their starting 2 seasons.
After winning a Champions League cluster-o-matches containing Kawasaki Frontale, Ulsan Hyundai and Guizhou Renhe – Western Sydney advanced through a testing slate of knockout rounds. They overcame Japanese champions Sanfrecce Hiroshima based on away goals finishing 3-3, edged off Champions League holders Guangzhou Evergrande on away goals within the quarter-finals and beat 2013 runners-up FC Seoul 2-0 within the semi-finals.
The game was set.
[image src=’http://fnx.network/fnxnetwork/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/covic0102.jpg’ width=’200′ height=’300′ title=’Source: Eric/EFCSO1, Flickr’ align=’left’]Al Hilal dominated play in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh however wasted many possibilities because the Wanderers commanded a “dead set” mentality to complete a superb triumph in their debut continental campaign fuelled by criticism by the owners of their opponents.
The star of the show was easily found standing in defence of the Wanderers goals… Covic repeatedly came to his side’s rescue, dominating within the air and developing defence with many crucial saves.
The Wanderers won the primary leg in Sydney 1-0 in the previous week despite waves of Al Hilal pressure, with Tomi Juric’s 64th-minute goal at Parramatta structure proving to be the distinction for glory.
The Wanderers are now the Champions of Asia. Western Sydney will be going on to be Asia’s representatives at next month’s Fifa Club World Cup.