Wanderers break crowd record in Sydney Derby loss

NRMA Insurance Western Sydney Wanderers have broken the Hyundai A-League crowd record but the majority of the 61,880 fans went home unhappy after the Red & Black fell 4-0 to Sydney FC.

The crowd is the largest ever Hyundai A-League attendance and also beats the largest NRL regular season crowd, meaning Wanderers now hold the record for both the Hyundai A-League and Westfield W-League.
 

While starting the match slowly, the Red & Black deprived Sydney FC of any real chances in the first half and began to take ascendency the longer the game went on.
 
Mitch Nichols was lively early, having a shot deflected wide and a header loop over the crossbar before Japanese import Jumpei began exciting the fans with his attacking runs.
 
Jumpei, Nichols and Kerem Bulut appeared to be involved with everything as the three attackers combined for a number of chances and crossing opportunities.
 
As half time approached, the trio went into overdrive when a Nichols back-heel found Jumpei who laid-off to Bulut only for his shot to drift agonisingly wide.
 
Bulut had another chance only minutes later as he found himself in behind the defence but a desperate save by the Sydney FC goalkeeper denied Wanderers what would have been a deserved half time lead.
 

With all the momentum going into the break, it was a surprise of sorts when Sydney FC took the lead early in the second half before Wanderers conceded a second almost instantly to go 2-0 down.
 
The Red & Black were still confident of a come-back with a Nichols thunderbolt only just off-target before marquee Nicolás Martínez teed up Bulut for a header that went straight to the keeper.
 
As the crowd got more into the match, the Wanderers looked more likely to grab a goal with Jumpei going on a mazy run to force a save from a difficult angle while Nichols had another chance saved by the keeper.
 
But when Aritz Borda received his marching orders and Sydney FC scored off the resulting free kick, a 3-0 deficit was too much for a team down to ten men.
 
Sydney FC scored once more with a minute remaining to seal a 4-0 win.
 
The Wanderers travel to Adelaide next week for a Grand Final replay against United on Friday night live on Fox Sports 505 and SBS 2.