Wanderers hero Ante Covic leads his team to the ACL semi-finals Photo:efcso1
The Western Sydney Wanderers have reached the Asian Champions League semi-finals following their 2-2 aggregate win over Guangzhou Evergrande in China on Wednesday night.
Following last week’s slender 1-0 first leg win at home, Western Sydney travelled to China knowing that a clean sheet or a loss by only one goal would see them advance to the ACL semi finals.
The home side started the game with the majority of possession during the opening stanza. But the Wanderers held firm as Guangzhou were reduced to only a handful of attacks into the opposition’s danger zone.
It was evident that the Guangzhou were opting to step up the physicality after being out-muscled in the second half of the first leg. Western Sydney eventually managed to push forward and put some pressure on the Chinese champions.
A 33rd-minute penalty for Guangzhou was superbly saved by keeper Ante Covic following a bad tackle from midfielder Iacopo La Rocca. Guangzhou huffed and they puffed but they didn’t get close to blowing anything down for the remainder of the half.
The second half started with both sides in an attacking frame of mind. In the 59th minute Mark Bridge broke the off side trap to chip the Guangzhou keeper where he was brought down for a penalty.
For some reason the referee decided to only show a yellow card for the foul instead of a routine red. Tomi Juric scored from the spot to give Western Sydney a 1-0 lead, 2-0 on aggregate. However, the ludicrous decision by the referee could still had an impact on the rest of the game.
Two minutes later and a lapse in concentration by the Wanderers defence saw an unmarked Alessandro Diamanti blast his shot past a hapless Covic to bring it back to 1-1 on the night and 2-1 over both legs.
With only one minute left on the clock some poor marking by Shannon Cole allowed Elkeson to have a shot on goal that was brilliantly saved by Covic. Another Guangzhou attack 2 minutes into injury time saw Elkeson slot the ball into the back of the net from close range following a deep cross that was pulled back across the face of goal.
Western Sydney held on for a famous result. They now go through to the ACL semi-finals where they will meet Korean side Pohang Steelers who lost last year’s ACL final to Guangzhou on penalties.
Western Sydney Wanderers 1
Guangzhou Evergrande 2
Man of the match: Ante Covic
Final score: 2-2 on aggregate,
Wanderers advance on away goals rule.
