Western Sydney Wanderers win Asian title Western Sydney Wanderers became the first Australian side to win the AFC Champions League title after a goalless draw against Saudi giants Al Hilal gave them a 1-0 aggregate win in the final. The Aussie side's victory stunned into silence the 65,000 Al Hilal supporters inside the King Fahd International Stadium, most of whom had turned out in the host team's blue and white colours. The win was a shot in the arm for the Wanderers who came into existence only two years ago and had survived some tough games in the tournament to reach the final.
"It is still a little surreal for me," Wanderers coach Tony Popovic said. "I am sure it will hit home in the next few days when we reflect.
For me, I am just proud for these players and our club. T
he first time in the competition, to win it, I think in the future we will really understand how special this run has been and how it was to win this title.
"We don't have the resources or the funds that some of these other teams have, but we have something that money can't buy, the desire to win."
Al Hilal were clearly the dominant side, but despite getting countless chances they failed to breach the Wanderers defence,
with goalkeeper Ante Covic putting in an outstanding performance, producing a series of stunning saves, especially late in the second half.
In the 75th minute, the 39-year-old blocked a fine header by Saudi legend Yasser al-Qahtani and five minutes from time saved a powerful shot from Nawaf al-Abed.
The Wanderers were up against a side who are among the most dominant in Asia,
having amassed dozens of international and domestic titles during their 57-year history, including a pair of Asian Club Championships in 1991 and 2000.
The Sydney club walked away with the trophy despite getting only one clear shot at goal, which was saved Al Hilal by goalkeeper Abdulla al-Sdairy.
Al Hilal coach Laurentiu Reghecampf rued the fact his team were not able to make the most of their chances.
"We had bad luck and we had many chances. We were the best team over the two games," the Romanian said.
"If you lose one game when you play bad, you can congratulate the other team. But when you play how we played and they play how they played, we feel very bad.
"We had many chances to score. Yasser had three chances to score alone and Mohamed al-Shalhoub was also good. We had a lot of chances but we missed them.
If the ball does not come to our strikers they cannot score and that's why we have to find a balance between attack and defence."
With the historic victory, the Wanderers booked their spot at the 2014 FIFA Club World Cup, where they will face CONCACAF Champions League champions Cruz Azul in the quarter-finals with a chance to play UEFA Champions League winners Real Madrid in the semi-finals.
http://www.fifa.com/world-match-centre/afcchampionsleague/news/newsid/246/985/0/index.html?intcmp=fifacom_hp_module_news 
[ 此帖被羅力亞在2014-11-02 08:03重新編輯 ]
