Friday Nov 15, 2024
Friday Nov 15, 2024
Monday, 27 October 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Wanderers, aiming to become the first Australian team to win Asia’s biggest club prize, were under siege for the first hour of the match at Parramatta Stadium until the Socceroos striker Juric came on for Brendon Santalab.
Four minutes later, three quarters of the 20,053 crowd were in raptures as he gave the home side a slender lead over the twice-Asian champions to take into the second leg at King Fahd Stadium in Riyadh next Saturday.
“It was a real battle,” said Wanderers coach Tony Popovic. “We had to be very resolute against a very good team and this have given us a chance to win the final.
“We’re halfway towards achieving something very special. We have set the platform now but the job’s not done.”
The Saudis will count themselves unlucky to have come away with nothing after dominating possession and territory and reducing Wanderers to defending in front of their penalty area for much of the match.
“We had a lot of chances, but we lost 1-0,” said Al-Hilal’s Romanian coach Laurentiu Reghecampf. “I’m sure after six days when we play the next game my team is going to win.”
Al-Hilal striker Nasser Al-Shamrani had the best chances to break the first-half stalemate, catching Wanderers keeper Ante Covic dithering in the 22nd minute and lashing his shot high and wide when through on goal just before halftime.
Wanderers quickly discovered that the visitors would not be out-muscled up front and before the break managed just a single attempt on goal from Antony Golec, which was well wide.
The match was transformed, though, when Juric came on just before the hour mark and he had already made Wanderers look sharper in attack before he shattered the deadlock in the 64th minute.
Golec broke quickly down the left wing and when he whipped his cross into the box, Juric got ahead of his marker and slid the ball under Al-Hilal keeper Abdullah Al-Sudairy and into the net.
Juric could have had a second eight minutes later when he ran at the Al-Hilal defence, sending his markers one way and then the other to find room for his shot only for the ball to come back off the post.
“His impact was fantastic,” Popovic said of Juric, who was returning from a groin problem. “It’s been seven weeks since he played. Tomi scored a fantastic goal... It’s just a shame he didn’t get that second one.”
The self-belief that has been behind the two-year-old Australian club’s extraordinary progress to the final in their maiden campaign was now coursing through the home side as they scented the possibility of an upset of another Asian powerhouse.
The 13-times Saudi champions kept plugging away, though, and Covic had to be at his sharpest in the final 10 minutes to keep them out and maintain the narrow advantage.
“The goalkeeper from Sydney did a great job today and I think that’s why the result is only 1-0 for them. Normally we would have scored two or three goals,” Reghecampf added.
