“No, I promise you we won’t lose tomorrow. I’m going to see to that and I hope that (Western) Sydney will stay a small team.”
These were the words of Al Hilal coach Laurentiu Reghecampf on the eve of the second leg of the 2014 Asian Champions League Final.
He was dressed in a thawb – traditional male clothing attire in Saudi Arabia – and received a raucous reception from the local journalists in Riyadh.
This was a game and a competition the Saudi giants not only expected to win, but felt it was their divine right to do so; after all, they were coming up against an Australian side in just its second season of existence and in their first appearance in the Champions League.
This unshakeable self-confidence was broken by a shock loss in the first leg at a packed out Parramatta Stadium, in what was one of the most famous club moments on Australian soil.
Played in front of over 20,000 fans – a record football crowd at the old stadium – it was a party atmosphere with a pre-game show and a mosaic from the RBB, yet the party soon turned to nerves as Al Hilal took control of the game.
Salman Al-Faraj had a chance almost straight away, and the Saudi side pummelled the Wanderers defence for much of the first half.
Al Hilal’s squad was good enough to match their confidence, with Al Faraj and Salem Al-Dawsari key players for the Saudi national team, and both were involved in the country’s shock win over Argentina at the 2022 World Cup, wil Al-Dawsari scoring one of the goals.
Fullback Yasser Al-Shahrani also took part in the famous win, but was stretchered off after fracturing his jaw in a collision that caused internal bleeding.
Despite the away side toiling away, they couldn’t find a goal even midway through the second half, leaving the door open for a Wanderer to make themselves a legend.
Tomi Juric came off the bench in the 58th minute, and he just needed one moment to write himself into Red and Black folklore.
The ball went out left to Antony Golec, who executed probably the greatest first time cross in his career that for the first time all game split open the Al Hilal defence.
It went into the perfect position in between the centre backs and the keeper, with neither being able to deal with it.
And Juric pounced.He stuck out his right boot and was able to get a solid enough connection on the ball to see it squirm under keeper’ Abdullah Al-Sudairy and into the net, sparking scenes of almost disbelieving pandemonium in Parramatta.
He almost had a second seized on a mistake and drove at the defence, unleashing a low shot from distance that cannoned off the post.
Al Hilal pushed for an all important away goal, but their shooting boots deserted them and frustrations showed as Nasser Al-Shahrani exchanged words with Ante Covic as the clock ticked down; it would be a precursor of what was to come a week later.
The Wanderers were used to playing in hostile atmospheres in Asia, but the scene greeting them at the King Fahd Stadium in Riyadh was something else entirely.
63,000 men packed out the stadium hours before kick-off, such was the noise created the Wanderers players remember not being able to hear the warm-up instructions from Adam Waterson.
They had a Saudi prince in the dugout, and their fans unfurled giant banners as the sides walked out.
The only support the Wanderers had in the stadium were 14 selected fans – with only one female – and a slightly larger group of Aussie expats.
Tony Popovic’s side had already overcome such an atmosphere in Guangzhou in the
quarter-final, but the pressure they were put under in the second leg pushed the plucky Wanderers to new levels.
Their rearguard, led by captain Nikolai Topor-Stanley and goalkeeper Ante Covic held out for the first half, in spite of the latter having lasers shone in his eyes from the crowd, but the Wanderers did have a bit of luck on their side, too.
Winger Nawaf Al-Abed was clipped by Golec in the box just before the break, but referee Yuichi Nishimura waved away the appeals.
There were two more instances of this in the second half, where Covic brought down Al-Faraj in the box and Santalab’s arm made contact with the ball in the box, but both times Nishimura called in favour of the Wanderers to the fury of the home side.
Adding to their anger was the herculean performance of Covic, whose miraculous saves stood between pain and glory for the Wanderers.
The best of these came in the 84th minute when a cutback found Yasser Al-Qathani, whose powerful shot at close range looked certain to go in but for Covic somehow getting a strong hand to the shot to help the ball roll wide of the goal.
This seemed to break Al Hilal’s spirit, as despite throwing everything at the Wanderers goal in stoppage time, they couldn’t find a way through, and Nishimura’s full time whistle meant the Wanderers had created history; the 14 fans in the stadium and thousands gathered in Parramatta’s Centenary Square celebrated as one.
Al-Shahrani’s emotions unfortunately got the better of him post match, as he spat at Matthew Spiranovic and attempted to headbutt him, leading to him being handed an eight match ban.
Nothing could dent the joy of the Wanderers as Topor-Stanley became the first captain of an Australian side to lift the trophy, as the players and staff celebrated their amazing achievement.
For Tony Popovic, the man who made it happen, he only had one thing to say.
“We were called a small club yesterday. Today we are the biggest in Asia.”
