2 days Ago
SINGAPORE: Underdogs Lion City Sailors booked their spot in the AFC Champions League Two final despite a 0-1 loss to Australian side Sydney FC on Wednesday (Apr 16). The Sailors, ahead 2-0 after a stunning first leg upset last week, survived a late onslaught at the Allianz Stadium sparked by a Joe Lolley goal to notch a remarkable result for Singapore football. Sydney are currently sixth in the top-tier A League, while the Sailors sit top of the Singapore Premier League.
The Sailors will face United Arab Emirates side Sharjah FC in the final on May 18. As they had in the opening leg, Sydney started the game the stronger of the two sides. In front of a crowd of 10,588, it took them just eight minutes to fashion their opening chance as Anthony Caceres forced Izwan Mahbud into a good stop at his near post.
And the home side would have the ball in the back of the net from the subsequent corner via Jordan Courtney-Perkins, but Adrian Segecic was ruled by VAR to have been offside. The Sailors have shown themselves to be a formidable team on the counter and could have gone 1-0 up minutes later. A raking cross-field pass from Rui Pires found Maxime Lestienne, but the Belgian could not bring the ball under control as Harrison Devenish-Meares gathered.
There was another warning sign for the Sailors close to the half-time whistle as Rhyan Grant ghosted in and directed a neat header past Izwan, but he had been offside. Seconds after Lestienne spurned a half-chance, Sydney almost took the lead but for an Izwan save from point-blank range in the 49th minute. The next chance fell to Bart Ramselaar after good interplay from the Sailors, but the Dutchman could only blaze over.
Izwan, who looked solid all throughout the night, pulled off another smart stop in the 73th minute as he pushed away a Patryk Klimala header at full stretch. Then came Lolley's strike, smartly rifled into the bottom corner in the 85th minute. The Singapore side had progressed to the semis after beating Sanfrecce Hiroshima 4-1 on aggregate.
All seemed lost for the Sailors after they lost to the Japanese side in the first leg of the quarter-finals 6-1. But the result was later chalked off, and they were awarded a 3-0 win by the Asian footballing body, as Sanfreece had fielded a player who was supposed to be serving a three-match suspension. The Sailors then registered a 1-1 draw in the second leg at home.
Previously known as the AFC Cup, the ACL2 is the second-tier Asian club football tournament with a revamped format. The last time a Singapore side reached the knockout stages of an AFC club competition was Home United, as the Sailors were previously known, in the 2018 edition of the AFC Cup..
