Sydney FC have survived a major scare to surge into the Asian Champions League 2 semi-finals with a 3-2 win (5-2 aggregate) over Jeonbuk Motors.
After Jeon Jinwoo had scored two first-half goals for the South Korean outfit on Thursday, Sydney’s hopes of advancing past the quarter-finals looked to have gone up in flames.
But goals from defender Alex Grant, in-form striker Patryk Klimala and a Douglas Costa penalty helped Sydney stamp their ticket to the next round in front of a crowd of 7039 at Allianz Stadium.
The Sky Blues will meet Singaporean outfit Lion City Sailors next month, where victory across the two legs would lead to them hosting the competition’s final.
Prize money for winning the competition is close to $4 million, with Emirati side Sharjah and Saudi outfit Al Taawoun meeting in the other semi-final.
Sydney, though, had to qualify for the semi-finals by taking the hardest route possible on Thursday.
After Klimala had a seventh-minute goal chalked off for offisde, Jeonbuk were well in control of the game.
On a bouncy and uneven surface, the South Korean side looked much more composed, and their Ghanaian midfielder Nana Boateng was pulling all the right strings.
Boateng played a ball forward and Sydney were caught dawdling when Jeon was able to lash in the opener.
Jeonbuk really began to turn the screw as halftime approached, and Sydney goalkeeper Harrison Devenish-Meares did well to deny Park Jae-Yong and Boateng in quick succession.
But Boateng went unchecked as Gus Poyet’s side launched another corner into the Sydney box, and while Devenish-Meares halted the goal-bound header, he was unable to reel the ball in.
Jeon was quickest to react and fired in from close range to make it 2-0 (2-2 on aggregate) and cancel out Sydney’s first-leg advantage.
Jeon wasted a golden chance to add another straight after halftime and the pressure was beginning to grow on Sydney.
Grant was the unlikely circuit-breaker when a free kick was played back across the face of goal and the centre back tapped in.
Sydney seemed to relax and Jeonbuk began to ease off as Costa brought out all his tricks, his link-up play with Jordan Courtney-Perkins leading to Klimala’s 71st-minute goal.
Costa then converted a penalty to make sure of the victory after Boateng had clattered into Adrian Segecic inside the Jeonbuk box.